NCLAFF: El Acompañante | The Companion

LOCATION: Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Educ Center, UNC-CH. >>> Dir. Pavel Giroud (Cuba), 2016. 104min. Spanish with English subtitles >> Cuba's official entry to the Academy Awards, The Companion is set in 1988 Cuba as the government dispatched HIV patients to AIDS centers under military rule. The film narrates the unlikely friendship between a boxing champion and a conflictive patient. After failing a doping test, Horacio Romero has no other choice but to serve a sentence. His fate is in Los Cocos, a sanatorium under military rule where HIV patients are compulsorily confined, with the exception of a weekly pass to visit their families under the supervision of personal wardens called "companions." As a "companion," Horacio is supposed to keep an eye on Daniel - the most conflictive patient in the ward - and get him to comply with the regulations. Their interests immediately collide as Daniel is set to spend his last days in freedom and is ready to do anything to make this happen. Horacio, on the other hand, dreams about boxing again to win back his champion status. For that to happen, however, he must first win this battle out of the ring.