Writer/Director: Margarita Semadeni
Director of Photography: Dominika Dittwald
Bittersweet Coffee is a film of struggles and dreams. Set in the coffee region of Nicaragua, two silent decades after the Civil War, the filmmaker allows us to enter the lives of three women connected to the land in different but profound ways. How do their struggles impact their families and communities? Do they have a chance, as women, in a society strongly dominated by a ‘machismo’ mentality?
Bittersweet Coffee shows us how, behind every cup of morning coffee, many bitter stories unfold. Despite traditional barriers, these women are determined to change the patterns of rural poverty. We will see that fairer access to capital for women plus innovative use of the land could be the key to a sweeter future.
The powerful collage of the three stories will result in a film that is highly dramatic, while offering a window to modern-day rural Nicaragua . The viewers will be engaged by the daily heart-wrenching struggles that the women must overcome. The stories will be told entirely from their perspective, cut with images of Nicaraguan market life, festivities and breath-taking rural landscapes.
Stills from research phase in Nicaragua (February 2005)