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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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2019

The Scorpion is me – A centennial family dance group

Directed by Juan Sebastián Alvarez

2017 – 95'

Synopsis

Santos Ramírez “Santico”, the current 40 year old artistic director, hides behind the Carnival’s atmosphere, as he is fighting against all odds to keep El Alacrán’s poison alive. “El Alacrán” (The Scorpion) is a legendary dance group in Havana founded in 1908 by his great-grandfather who was brought to Cuba as a slave during Spanish colonialism. Characters and dances represent a synthesis of Cuban culture. At present, the Alacrán’s artistic level is declining and resources are scarce. When the now blind Carlos Valdés, the 86 year old founder and ex-dancer of “El Alacrán” laments and severely criticizes him because the costumes are no longer the same as before, Santos undertakes a journey in the memory of his own dance group to fulfill the yearned dream of the “El Alacrán” initial founders. Santos’s odyssey is to revive and restore the earlier glory of his dance group. What does the future hold for the centennial dance group “El Alacrán”?…

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RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.