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Synopsis

El Cuartito (original title)

What is the purpose of your journey?

By Marcos Carnevale

In a high-stakes comedy drama that illustrates the power of humanity in an increasingly fragmented world, the dreams of five vastly different strangers traveling to Puerto Rico are put on hold when immigration authorities confine them in ‘El Cuartito’ (The Search Room). Trapped inside the tiny detention room and cut off from the outside world, the detainees must find a way to understand each other and work as a team to escape before Thanksgiving night. Guarded by the incorruptible security officers of ‘El Cuartito’ and facing deportation, each detainee must confront old ghosts and fears as they take destiny into their own hands and become who they have always dreamed of being.

@elcuartitomovie

Lina

A fearful and drug-dependent Latina now living in Paris, is detained while trying to enter the U.S. territory with psychotropic drugs.

Toti

A Spanish rocker scheduled to perform a concert in Puerto Rico who is held by USCIS after he produces the wrong visa.

Jesús

An enigmatic Mexican traveler who has been deported before from the USA.

Mariel

A Puerto Rican blocked from returning to her home country after many years because she cannot prove her U.S. citizenship.

Santo

A Dominican preacher arrested for carrying a fake missionary visa.

DIRECTOR's STATEMENT

El Cuartito is a necessary film at a time when the human spirit is under threat from a huge wall. Framed as a dramatic comedy, five strangers of Hispanic American origins, who for different reasons find themselves trapped within the four walls of the immigration room at San Juan.