Ashes (Ceniza en la Boca)

Diego Luna directs, produces, and stars behind the camera in this Cannes-premiered adaptation of Brenda Navarro’s acclaimed novel. The film follows 21-year-old Lucila, who leaves Mexico with her emotionally fragile younger brother, Diego, to reunite with their mother, Isabel, in Madrid. Instead of the fresh start she imagined, Lucila encounters precarious caregiving and nanny work, economic hardship, cultural displacement, and the persistent feeling of being an outsider.

As Lucila and Diego confront the emotional distance created by years apart from their mother, old resentments and competing expectations resurface. After a tragedy, Lucila returns to her grandparents in Mexico, only to find herself alienated in her own hometown. The film explores immigration, family responsibility, identity, independence, and the difficult process of understanding the past.

When: Monday, October 5, 2026

Showtime: 7:00 PM

Tickets: Price not available

Venue: AFI Silver Theater, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

Run time: 98 minutes

Languages: Catalan, English, and Spanish with English subtitles

Ages: Not rated

Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Diego Luna

Screenwriter: Abia Castillo

Additional Screenwriter and Producer: Diego Rabasa, adapting the novel by Brenda Navarro

Producers: Inna Payán, Valérie Delpierre, and Luis Salinas

Cast: Anna Díaz as Lucila, Sergio Bautista as Diego, and Adriana Paz as Isabel

Note: Presented as a Special Features: Centerpiece Screening.