Anina
Philadelphia Premiere
University of the Arts
Sunday April 27 | 10:30 a.m.
Preceded by Presentation of works
by young Latino Students (10 minutes)
Sponsored by Taller Puertorriqueño
For ages 8+/Para la familia
About the Film
Anina Yatay Salas is a ten-year-old girl. All her names form palindromes, making her the butt of her classmates’ jokes, and especially of Yisel’s, who Anina sees as an “elephant.”
One day, fed up with all the taunting, Anina starts a fight with Yisel during recess. The incident ends with the principal penalizing the girls and calling their parents.
Anina receives her punishment inside a sealed black envelope, which she is told not to open until she meets with the principal again a week later.
She is also forbidden to tell anyone about the envelope. Her classmates pressure her to find out what the punishment will be, while they imagine cruel physical torture.
Anina, in her anxiousness to find out what horrible punishment awaits her in the mysterious black envelope, will get mixed up in a series of troubles, involving secret loves, confessed hatreds, close friendships, dreadful enemies, some loving teachers, and also some evil teachers.
Without her realizing it, Anina’s efforts to understand the content of the envelope turn into an attempt to understand the world and her place in it.
Trailer
About the Director
Alfredo Soderguit was born in in Uruguay in 1973. At 18 he received an Honorable Mention for Creativity in the National Educational Video Award in Uruguay for his animated film based on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. After working as a children’s book illustrator and an animator, he founded SO (Symbolic Operation), an art group that staged large-scale installations across Montevideo. Some of these works included the screening of audiovisual material produced by the team of artists itself. In 2003, Alfredo founded the Palermo Animation studio together with Alejo Schettini and Claudia Prezioso, which went on to produce several animation pieces. He has illustrated almost 40 books, in Uruguay as well as in Argentina, Norway and Mexico. One of those is Anina Yatay Salas, the book that inspired him to make this feature film.
