MAMA

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At 36, filmmaker Ana Cristina Benítez is confronted with a disquieting diagnosis: advanced-stage breast cancer. In MAMA, she films herself without compromise through chemotherapy, surgeries, and recovery—an intense journey that does not stop at the body, but also lays bare a wounded soul.

Supported by her family and her partner Mateo, Benítez embarks on a raw, unfiltered healing process, told in a poetically precise first-person voice. She weaves the present together with intimate archival footage: images filmed with the camera her father sent home from the United States after emigrating, asking the family to record themselves so he could continue to witness their lives from afar.

These images unlock a flow of childhood memories, shaped by her father’s absence. As Ana moves through her personal history, she also turns a sharp gaze to the present—toward her relationship with her family and Mateo, and toward her changing relationship with her own body. MAMA thus becomes an ode to vulnerability and resilience, and a film about reconnecting with oneself, one’s past, and one’s origins in the midst of life-altering transformation.
After earlier collective and social film projects, workshops with street children, and several short films, Benítez’s first feature-length documentary MAMA had its world premiere at Hot Docs.

In collaboration with KINOLATINO, the Latin American Film Festival in Brussels, Antwerp, Nivelles, and Louvain-la-Neuve from March 20 to 28, 2026. The Kinolatino Festival presents the best of Latin American cinema in Belgium. On the program: feature films and short films, fiction and documentaries in competition, meetings with filmmakers, lively debates… and of course, a festive atmosphere!