Colosal

Every family has its secrets, says director Nayibe Tavares-Abel. Those of her own are intimately interwoven with the history of the Dominican Republic – and with the political violence and frustration inherent within it. Tavares-Abel is an election observer for the 2020 presidential elections in the Dominican Republic. 30 years earlier, in May 1990, her grandfather Froilán Tavares, a renowned lawyer, was appointed chair of the electoral commission – in the hope of a fair democratic process and the end to dictatorship under Joaquín Balaguer. However, the election was overshadowed by suspicions of electoral fraud levelled at Tavares. Archive material shows the hopes and disappointments that accompanied the elections, while a spontaneous survey on the streets of Santo Domingo reveals fundamentally different perspectives on the re-elected long-term ruler Balaguer. Colosal is the self-examination of a younger generation, autobiographical and sincere, a trans-generational family portrait caught between fear and trauma. A crash course in the history of the Dominican Republic and democracy as such. A filmic attempt to find peace, dare to do something new, get active.