Blood Calls You

Director Linda Thorgren, whose mother is Cuban and whose father is Swedish, herself hears the "call of blood", setting out for Cuba, where she falls for Alexis. After they marry, their Havana love story turns into a nightmare in Europe, when Thorgren finds herself beaten and humiliated at the same time as she is expecting her daughter Alma. Her own mother Marta has experienced just such an unhappy relationship, as had her grandmother and great-grandmother before her. Thorgren gradually comes to terms with the fact Alexis has used her to get out of Cuba and acquire Swedish citizenship. However, she is keen to break the pattern that sees parents' problems reflected in the lives of their children. Among other things, the documentary shows how hard it is to overcome the wrongs of a childhood in which one parent has been absent. The director's interviews with her mother and father show the depths of a complex problem, while the audience is left wondering: Will the director's daughter Alma one day return to Cuba in search of memories of her father?