El Regresado

El regresado tells the story of a young Cuban painter, a graduate of the National Art School, who returns to his hometown of Gibara in Eastern Cuba to complete his mandatory social service. At the same time, he has also been drafted into military service, from which he hopes to be exempted once he begins working at a local cultural institution. In Gibara, he reunites with his admired former professor – himself an artist – who has been purged for his aesthetic vision and statements that do not align with the doctrine of Castroism. Gibara has become a small inferno ruled by fear, opportunism, and repression – and compels the young man to make a drastic decision.