Advent

On a lonely stretch of Asturian coastline, Suso, a young unemployed man adrift after his mother's death, notices a strange young woman on the beach who reminds him of her. Before he can act, she walks off a cliff, and the shock sends him searching for who she was. As his questions lead him from the medieval streets of Avilés to the cemetery where his mother lies, memories he has long kept buried begin to surface, and the search for the woman's identity becomes a reckoning with his own. Co-directed by Spanish filmmaker Roberto F. Canuto and Chinese filmmaker Xu Xiaoxi, Advent is a psychological mystery shot in the Asturian language, a rarity in Spanish cinema, with David Soto Giganto as Suso alongside Ici Díaz and Lidia Méndez. The short premiered at the 54th Gijón International Film Festival, where it won the Día d'Asturies audience award for best short film.