‘To The West, In Zapata’ review: Life on the extremes in pandemic-era Cuba

Dir/scr: David Bim. Cuba/Spain. 2025. 75mins

The daily struggle to survive and put food on the table is keenly felt in David BIM’s debut feature To The West, In Zapata. Bim’s observational documentary captures some extraordinary moments as it follows the extreme challenges facing one Cuban family when the Covid-19 pandemic rages through their country. Striking monochrome compositions enhance a touching tale that brims with humanity and should readily attract further festival interest following its world premiere in the Burning Lights competition of Visions du Reel.

 A touching tale that brims with humanity

Bim is director of the FICCLAB feature film development programme at the International Film School Of Cuba. Covid-19 restrictions forced him into becoming a one-man filmmaking unit for a first feature that he has divided into two distinctive parts. The first, entitled ‘Landi’, focuses on that eponymous figure. Opening shots capture him walking through jungle and swampland. A machete dangles at his waist and he carries the hefty burden of a dead crocodile on his back. We follow every step of his long walk until light breaks through the dense forest and we arrive at a clearing where he has set up camp.

A wind-up radio provides news bulletins that establish the date as July 10, 2021 and provide some sense of the Cuban government’s response to the pandemic. Living in isolation, the self-sufficient Landi appears to be in complete harmony with his surroundings. He drinks from the swamp water, fells trees to create a stable pathway through the mud and has taken a small rodent as a pet. Bim focuses his camera on Landi’s lean, muscled torso and his gnarled, leathery features as he stares stoically into the distance, drawing on a cigarette that appears to be his one luxury. The sound design adds to the vivid atmosphere. capturing bird calls, the hum and buzz of insects and Landi’s squelchy progress through the swamp.

The beautiful black-and-white cinematography calls to mind the work of David Gallego on Embrace Of The Serpent (2015). Bim shows a great eye for an evocative image, not least as Landi lies slumbering in a coffin-like boat surrounded by water, lillies and reeds that suggests a John Everett Millias painting. Bim follows as Landi pursues his risky business in all weathers. In the film’s most spellbinding sequence, we watch him wading through the water trying to snare another crocodile as it thrashes and snaps. Landi seems impervious to the dangers that surrounds him, driven only by his need for food.

In the second half, entitled ‘Mercedes’, we understand why this all matters so much. In a sequence which parallels the film’s opening shots, Mercedes carries her own burden in the shape of disabled son Deinis, who requires 24-hour care. Mercedes is eagerly awaiting the return of Landi from his clandestine trip to the Zapata swamp, a biosphere reserve. He is already two days late. His homecoming is bittersweet; a brief interlude of togetherness before he will return to the hunting grounds. Mercedes is all too aware of their impossible situation, declaring that they are more likely to die of hunger than Covid-19.

Initially, To The West is a film that withholds a good deal of information, inviting the viewer to come to it rather than reaching out to grab the attention. The scenes of jungle life are mesmerising, as if we have been granted the privilege of sharing the existence of a hermit. When we realise what has been at stake, the film warms and deepens. For one family on the margins of Cuban society, crocodile hunting is literally a matter of life and death. The irony comes from appreciating that the only way they have of staying together is to endure the repeated stretches of separation.