Best Ecuadorian movies

A father is without the means to pay for his daughter's medical treatment. As a last resort, he partners with a greedy co-worker to rob a casino. When things go awry they're forced to hijack a city bus.

A Missionary converting an Indigenous Community in a remote Ecuadorian volcano must come to terms with her own Faith when her son is possessed by dark forces older than her own religion.

The film tells the story of Ariel, a 21-year-old who decides to form a rock band to compete for a prize of ten thousand dollars in a musical band contest, this as a last option when trying to get money to save their relationship and reunite with his ex-girlfriend, which breaks due to the trip she must make to Finland for an internship. Ariel with her friend Ortega, decides to make a casting to find the other members of the band, although they do not know nothing about music, thus forming a band with members that have diverse and opposite personalities.

A fearless sea captain, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, sails a ship through loopholes in international law, providing abortions on the high seas, and leaving in her wake a network of emboldened activists who trust women to handle abortion on their own terms.

A cynical college student and an optimistic tourist, stranded on a bus by a national strike, form an unlikely bond as they decide to hitchhike together to reach their individual destinations, discovering shared lessons and unexpected friendship along the way.

Blaquito is thirty years old and lives with his mother in El Matal, a small fishing village on the coast of Ecuador. One day, the beach turns up filled with cocaine packets. Blanquito, along with his friend Lorna, decide to travel to Guayaquil, where people will pay five times more per package. Little does Blanquito realize that in the days that follow he will be staring at death in the eye and losing his head for love.

Mariano Cruz Ordóñez is an Ecuadorian bullfighter at the end of his artistic career. Mariano was a figure of bullfighting in Ecuador and participated in the most important bullrings of his country and the world. The glory years have passed and prohibitions have arisen regarding bullfighting shows, and the only thing left is, with tenacity and faith, to fight against various adverse circumstances looking for a chance to move foward.

In 1971, Uruguayan journalist and writer Eduardo Galeano published his landmark work Open Veins of Latin America, in which he comprehensively described the centuries of economic exploitation of Latin America. Almost 40 years later, filmmaker Gonzalo Arijon reevaluates the situation. His search takes him from the soybean plantations of the Brazilian Amazon to the tin mines of Bolivia to the deep jungles of Ecuador. Arijon’s politically committed film allows the local populations to speak for themselves, interspersing this with archival footage of speeches by Hugo Chávez, Lula da Silva and Evo Morales. Galeano himself also speaks—sometimes in poetic language— about how the rise of socialist governments in the early 21st century is benefitting Latin America, and what more can be done.

A portrait of of an era, a generation, of one of the most emblematic bands of Ecuador, Mamá Vudú.

Julia, a teenager from Latin America, has lived in the U.S. most of her life. She is popular, a successful Youtuber and wants to become prom queen. Everything changes abruptly when her family has to return to Ecuador. What will she have to face? Getting used to a new culture and a catholic high school will not be easy. The "gringa" becomes the target of "La Reinas", three popular bullies who rule the school. Julia is now a misfit who will have to earn her new friends' affection in order to survive.

Vicky is fisherman by day and bar owner at night. When she was a little boy her dream was to be a radio soap opera star, nowadays she dreams of falling in love again. How is it possible that a small, barren place in the third world has managed to achieve this special form of freedom and tolerance?

Cartoon rabbit lives in an endless loop.

Camila suffers from amnesia and has filled the emptiness in her life with an imaginary world where a giant fish acts as her guardian. She escapes into this dreamlike realm to flee from a blurry past. However, when the boy she loves disappears, she must embark on a journey to find him and uncover what lies hidden between dreams, the fantastical, the past, and the future.

If films are memory, what happens when a film is lost? If films exist only in the memory of those who were able to see them, does the filmmaker who created them even exist? Bitterness and nostalgia cut with discarded frames, Gustavo Valle saves shelved and dampened traces of film confirming that: "It was", that "It existed", that "It exists", that "It is".

A portrait of Jaime Roldos, Ecuador's first democratically elected president, who died with his family when their plane crashed in the mountains.

In May 2003, around 30 women and children were murdered in the Ecuadorian jungle. The victims belonged to the Taromenani clan, an uncontacted indigenous group in Ecuador. The massacre was left in impunity and oblivion. This documentary explores the history of contact with the Huaorani decades ago, the death of Alejandro Labaka in 1987 and recent attacks on loggers in the area, to discover that these events are linked to the history of uncontacted peoples in Ecuador.

Miranda, a lesbian photographer from Guayaquil living in Buenos Aires returns to Ecuador for an exhibition of her work. Magdalena, a simple girl after a big fight with her boyfriend decides to go party with Monica, her best friend, little she knew that night she would meet Miranda, a woman that will change the way she concieve her life.

Two families dispute a land with a land dealer.

When Luisa, 45, returns from a psychiatric clinic after a bout with severe postpartum depression, she enters a new confinement in her dazzling home, surrounded by family members and a brigade of servants who expect her struggles to remain invisible. Unable to continue playing the role of the perfect housewife, Luisa's only escape is to waltz elegantly into madness.

A well-known filmmaker follows a famous mountain climber to Nepal, documenting the journey. Conversations about their lives lead to philosophical reflections, as the mountain challenges their motives. As days go by, the higher altitude and the depletion of oxygen will raise their debate to interior and transcendental territories, putting at stake their trajectories and their egos when facing the mountain and its millenary depth.

The movie follows four women of different generations and their struggle in the cold world of modeling.

Filmmaker José Cardoso’s deeply personal Flowers is an exercise in sense-making, led by both his conscious and unconscious mind. Navigating the barrage of online news images produced each day, he transforms these into an unexpected web of connections that link an Amazonian community threatened with the destruction of their land to an extreme right-wing Brazilian President who justifies the exploitation of the Amazon by the rising price of resources precipitated by the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches us to make our enemy the object of our compassion, and the filmmaker’s three-year-old son marvels at the frogs and flowers growing in the garden.

When the colourful ice-cream van rides through the deserted streets of the village, there are no children trailing behind it. In Plazuela, a peaceful hamlet lost in a mountainous region of Ecuador, only a handful of old ladies remain, who are all widows. In the gloom of their houses, photos of those who are gone hang on walls: husbands who have passed away a few years earlier, children gone to work in the big cities or abroad, and grandchildren who have grown up far away from them.

Chronicle of the judicial process for the murder of 16-year-old student Paúl Guañuna, committed by police officers in 2007. The fight of a father and thousands of young people against racism, authoritarianism and impunity.

Being different is no easy task. And when the difference is so visible, like albinism, or so burdensome, like a heart condition, things get harder. Albino introvert Tito must travel from Panama to Costa Rica to pick up his sick father. Not having spoken to his father in years, their reunion is less than desired. César has always lived on his own terms and would rather deal with his weakness alone. And Tito would rather not deal with anyone. So, the ride back to Panama is a bit heated. They might kill each other but not without first confronting their anxieties and the reasons for the distance kept between them for so long

Teo, an intrepid child, lives with his father Luis in Lima, an electrician devoted to the creation of a strange machine. Lured by a feeling of independence, Teo joins a gang of young criminals, bringing turmoil to the relationship with his father.

Daily life in the city of Quito, Gauyaquil and Ibarra.

Ecuadorian athlete Millán Ludeña, embarks on his new adventure to be the first athlete to register a new Guinness World Record for his beloved country.

A handmade narco sub is on the verge of sinking and losing its precious cargo due to a mechanical failure. The three crew members are forced to open the forbidden cargo cabin to distribute the weight and save the ship. Next to the cargo they find a special “gift“ for the buyer: a young girl, gagged and in terrible shape. The boat, barely big enough for three to begin with, becomes a steaming powder cake of fears, desires and greed.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a famished man encounters an abandoned house containing a bountiful feast.

Is there an audience for Latin American movies? These are some of the questions posed by an Ecuadorian filmmaker whose latest movie was a commercial flop. He embarks on a query to find answers to his questions and relief for his despair. His research leads him to a giant contraband market in the port city of Guayaquil, where pirated movies from all over the world are sold for one dollar each. Here, he discovers a number of Ecuadorian low budget movies produced by amateurs, with titles he had never heard of before: from action packed productions to evangelical melodramas.

At the end of the 19th century, a boy appears in an Andean village. Nicanor, the village priest, discovers that the child’s blood causes the crops to bear fruit magically, but for the boy to live, he must be fed human blood.

Sara is 23 years old and is blind. One morning she goes to her country house accompanied by her boyfriend Jose Luis, her cousin Carolina and her boyfriend Pedro. At first the trip seems to be quite fun, but there is a strange energy in this country house as a result of a very dark past. As time goes by, the truth begins to unfold, and the intentions of each of the characters engages them in unexpected carnal desires. All this happens around Sara's blindness.

Early silent Western from Ecuador.

In order to rescue his father's ramshackle grill restaurant, filmmaker and vegetarian Dario Aguirre is traveling back to his homeland Ecuador. What starts out as a strange debate about opening times, chips and Excel spread sheets, develops into a moving family drama.

LEI and WONG clandestinely arrive to Ecuador, on their way to the port city of Guayaquil. From here LEI plans to continue her journey to New York, but CHANG, a bipolar mobster will decide her fate. WONG unwillingly gets entangled in the web of corruption that operates the encroachment of Chinese immigrants. His only objective is to bring his twelve-year-old son from China.

Scenes of daily life in the Indian communities of Ecuador.

Reception with Ambassadors to Ecuador when President Isidro Ayora took office. Aspects of Public Administration in education and health.

A woman suffering from drug addiction is interned against her will in a clandestine rehabilitation center where she suffers many cases of abuse and fights to survive against violence, prejudice and the loss of dignity.

Filmmaker María Fernanda Restrepo reconstructs events that led to her older brothers' murders at the hands of Ecuadorian police.

Romantic comedy

Two hustlers are united on the run after an innocent robbery. They travel the country seeking to subsist at the cost of the ingenuity of people.

Children playing

In an unknown first world airport the arrival of an ecuadorian flight is heard. The 'members of the European Union' passby migration, while the 'others', in the other line, wait. In the middle of the claims, a group of ecuadorians is arrested. They are taken to the Room, where they wait to be deported. Seems like everyone hides something, like PROMETEO the young magician with his hands tied like a delinquent who has a 'magical' trunk as luggage. Time passes, a way of being, Ecuador happens in this waiting room. Seems like there is no possible exit. Meanwhile, a different but well-known way of life takes place. The only thing left as a promising way out is illusion.

Faces of walkers in Alameda Park

A group of musicians move to a ranch in order to capture the sound of the Andes in their first album.

The wild and wanton Francisca, known as "The Tigress," is the eldest of three sisters, who are bosses of a farm in Ecuador. A medicine man tells Francisca and Juliana that their youngest sister Sara must remain a virgin to protect their land. A travelling salesman, engaged to Sara, tells the police that she is being kept locked up by her older sisters.

Jordi a young man working at a bank has an overriding aim in life and that is to hide his humble origins. But he meets Greta a Colombian girl who has come to Ecuador to make a living.....

In 1957, murders occurred upon the infamous, 'Island of the Dolls', in Mexico. A modern-day British journalist, Emily, deceitfully takes an assignment in London to research and uncover the truth of the unspoken event. With the assistance of her photographer friend and several Mexican locals, they travel to the mysterious island, and soon discover the danger of which awaits them. Despite some spooky, sometimes threatening incidences, Emily is determined to crack the case. Will she accept the truth, before she too remains a doll.

A black comedy that portraits a chain of six romances united by chance. In Tinta Sangre the protagonists are the city of Quito, its characters and its inner world. Loves and heartbreak are the thread of this film, and the constant question that all of them ask is why we call it love when we mean addiction.

Airmen and friends at Hacienda San Carlos

The Hippodrome

Between Marx and a Naked Woman is the adaptation of a novel written by Ecuadorian Poet, Jorge Enrique Adoum. The scenes of this film insert us into Ecuador in the sixties, when the electoral struggle, convoked by the military government for a new return to democracy, is in full force. Galvez’s left-wing party must elect its candidate, but he is shoved to one side because of the criticism of the party’s political leadership. While his struggle becomes bitter, he must withstand the frustration of not being able to offer full love to Margaramaría, another party member.

Faces Bullfighters

Professional bullfight Plaza Belmonte

Church, Portería and Convent of San Francisco

Ballroom dancing

When a new priest arrives in a small Andean village, the lives of its inhabitants begin to change.

Paseo de las banderillas announcing the bulls

Ingratiation of Simón Bolívar

Cathedral and Plaza Grande

Burial of Archbishop Manuel Maria Polit Laso (October 1932)

Parade with portrait of Eloy Alfaro