Rains Over Babel

About the film:

A group of misfits converges at Babel, a legendary dive bar that doubles as purgatory, where La Flaca(Saray Rebolledo), the city's Grim Reaper, presides. Here, souls gamble years of their afterlives with her, daring to outwit Death herself.

Colombian writer-director Gala del Sol's stylish debut feature is an audacious, ambitious, kaleidoscopic carnival of queerness. Rains Over Babel first began to take shape during Covid lockdown, initially as a kind of shared group therapy project between del Sol and her team of young theatre actors, before gradually evolving into a full-blooded screen drama.

Drenched in neon, accessorised with fetish gear and steeped in extravagant queer Latin-punk attitude, Rains Over Babel is inspired by Dante’s Inferno but driven by the contradictions and rebellious spirit of the city of Cali, Colombia.

The film is elevated by Martín De Lima’s score: a shapeshifting curiosity that swings from salsa to Balkan music without missing a beat. The songs that make up the film’s soundtrack similarly run the gamut; a flamenco number anchors a melancholy moment of remembrance. while a glorious drag number is set to high-energy trap.

About the festival:

ESCENA. Oslo Ibero-amerikanske filmdager is a platform for cultural exchange between Norway and the Ibero-American region.

The aim of the festival is to promote the interest in film from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations of Europe and the Americas and showcase the vibrant film expressions of these nations.

The films convey social, political, and historical aspects of this cultural context as well as the challenges currently facing the societies of the region. Even though these nations share a common cultural mainstream; they form a rich tapestry of diverse backgrounds that translate into their cinematic expression.

ESCENA also provides a gathering place and discussion forum for film enthusiasts, for those with roots in the region and others who have an interest in Ibero-America.