PÉREZ RODRÍGUEZ

• Stephany Liriano
• Luis José Gemán
• Lizbeth Santos
• Cuquín Victoria
• Xiomara Rodríguez

The debut film from Dominican director Humberto Tavárez is a delightful, moving, and very funny satire of both the family institution in general and the middle class of his country in particular. With a narrative structure reminiscent of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and a development that could easily be described as the heir to THE CELEBRATION or SECRETS AND LIES, the film tackles, with raw and dark humor, issues such as blood ties, national identity, delusions of grandeur, and social hypocrisy. A fantastic portrait of characters, wonderfully performed, full of humanity and deep contradictions—at times miserable and despicable, and endearing and helpless at others. It’s impossible not to empathize with them in a film that is profoundly Dominican and, at the same time, profoundly universal.

Carlos, Cristina, and Carmen are the Pérez Rodríguez siblings, a middle-class family whose lives are turned upside down by the death of their father. Amid three family gatherings—a birth, a funeral, and a birthday—a half-brother their father had outside of marriage, reappears. Contacted by his father years ago, he now controls the will and the family inheritance. This revelation unleashes secrets, resentments, and confrontations that will test the true value of their family bonds.