TIGER (2024, Dominican Republic)

Written By Jesper Isaksen

  • TIGUERE (native title)

  • DIRECTION | José Maria Cabral

  • CAST | Manny Perez, Carlos Fernandez

  • SCREENPLAY | Arturo Arango, Nuri Duarte, Xenia Rivery, Alan Gonzales, José Maria Cabral

  • CINEMATOGRAPHER | Hernan Herrera

  • PRODUCERS | Carlos German

  • TECHNICAL INFO | 84 min., color, Spanish

  • CATEGORIES | Drama, thriller, coming of age.

A group of male adolescents are recruited by their parents into a bootcamp to be forged into hustlers, players, “tigueres”. This archetype is the highest idealization of the male character in Dominican and Caribbean culture. Alberto is the head coach of this camp who decides that Pablo’s time has come to join the group. But Pablo, his son, is a Tiguere in his own right, unbeknownst to Alberto, whose coming-of-age process clashes with his father’s authoritarian views. This leads Pablo on a journey of self-discovery.

FESTIVALS: Guadalajara IFF 2025, ZLIN Children’s festival 2025, Málaga Film Festival 2025, Festival Internacional de Cine de Punta del Este 2025, FECIR 2024, Cairo IFF 2024, Festival International de Cinéma d’Auteur de Rabat – Competition 2024, São Paulo IFF 2024 (World Premiere).

MONDAY JULY 21 | 21:30

STATUS | DANISH PREMIERE

Jesper Isaksen

Jesper Isaksen is a talented director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. His first short NIMA (16 min.) a homemade low budget gangster tale from the streets of Copenhagen was shown at Danish National Television.

Another short gangster tale NO EXIT (12. min) was selected semifinalist out of more than 15.000 short films in the global "YourFilmFestival" conducted by Ridley & Tony Scott and Michael Fassbender. The first prize was 500.000 USD. NO EXIT went on to participate in the biggest and most prestigious short film festival in Denmark "EKKO SHORTLIST" and went straight to the top 10 and stayed there for 11 consecutive weeks straight.

The sequel, NO EXIT 2 - RISE AGAINST, also participated in "EKKO SHORTLIST" with a 1st place as the highest ranking. It went on to roam the top 10 in 13 consecutive weeks straight. NO EXIT 2 was later nominated in two categories "The Shortlist Award" and also "The Audience Award" at EKKO Award Show 2014.

The short film comedy THE VISITOR premiered at Orlando Film festival in 2018 and also received a nomination for "Best Foreign Language Short Film". In 2019 it got selected as part of the Official Selection at the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival and also won the "Best Comedy" award at Annual Aarhus Film Festival. It later roamed the top 10 at EKKO Shortlist 2019/2020 with a 1st place as the highest ranking.

In the fall of 2019 Jesper finished his first feature film VICTIM OF LOVE, a dense psychological and bloody yet stylish horror-thriller starring Danish powerhouse actor Rudi Køhnke. It premiered Saturday the 16th of November 2019 at the biggest feature film festival in Denmark, CPH PIX. It also received a Robert nomination by the Danish Film Academy for "Best Original Song" by Julian Winding at The Danish Film Awards 2020. Robert is equivalent to the American Oscar, the French César and the British BAFTA.

VICTIM OF LOVE has had a pretty strong festival run earning 19 wins and 33 nominations so far. It will continue its festival run in 2021 and hopefully reach even more awesome festivals and horror and genre audiences across the world.

VICTIM OF LOVE is being distributed by Another World Entertainment in Denmark and Indican Pictures & Lionsgate worldwide.

Jesper has also directed more than 20 music videos.

http://www.jesperisaksen.com
Previous

VILLAGE KEEPER (2024, Canada)
Next

KISSED BY FIRE (DK, 2024)