Leona

Writer/director Isaac Cherem’s directorial debut is a heartfelt, contemporary take on a timeless love story, deftly blending romantic comedy with an incisive feminist journey of discovery and self-determination.Making the transition into adulthood, a young woman from Mexico City finds herself torn between her Syrian-Jewish family and a forbidden love, in this delicate, melancholic romance. Naian González Norvind gives an intimate, honest performance as Ariela, an independently-minded artist living with her family in a cloistered Jewish neighborhood in Mexico City. Pressured to find an appropriate suitor, serendipity leads to a passionate courtship with the bohemian Ivan (Christian Vazquez), a non-Jewish writer who shows her a world of possibilities beyond her sheltered life. As their feelings deepen, Ariela must weigh their unsanctioned relationship against rejection by her family and community, where religious values and traditions run deep. Bridging the divide between generations and cultures, writer/director Isaac Cherem’s directorial debut is a heartfelt, contemporary take on a timeless love story, deftly blending romantic comedy with an incisive feminist journey of discovery and self-determination.