Directed by Armando Capó • Documentary • 2025 • 79 minutes
For filmmaker Armando Capó, the southeastern Cuban town of Gibara is a place of ghosts, haunted by his lost youth, a bustling past that cannot be recovered — and the skeleton of a whale.
Capó left Gibara for Havana as a young man, realizing he had no future there as a filmmaker. THE LAND OF THE WHALE chronicles his early pandemic return — a trip he makes in part to reconnect with three of his former teachers nearing the end of their lives. Lemus is a former pianist who spends his days at home, in the company of his family and the dogs he rescues from the streets. Catala, a painter, travels the town and surroundings with Capó, as they paint together and share techniques and memories And Tony, retired from the local science museum, collected and preserved the bones of the whale that washed ashore decades ago and continues to be fascinated by living creatures of all kinds.
All three men left Gibara earlier in their lives and later returned. But in walking the empty streets with them, exploring the local caves, and hiking the shore, Capó realizes this cannot be his path.
THE LAND OF THE WHALE is a beautiful meditation on craft, beauty, aging, the transmission of knowledge, and what it means to be an artist.
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