Borrufa

Shot on 16mm film in long, thoughtful takes, Roland Dahwen’s debut feature tells the story of an immigrant family in Oregon whose life is disrupted when it’s revealed that the father has a second family. Reeling from this news, his wife Leonora must choose to either leave her husband, her dying mother, and her son, who has a mysterious illness—or to move on, and let her husband take responsibility for the family he’s destroyed. With a pace that mimics real life contemplations, Borrufa straddles the line between documentary and narrative, while the generational tragedies of human error slowly creep through the screen.