Two lovers bound by a violent past must confront the ghosts of their parents’ war and learn that forgiveness is the most radical form of love.
Set in New York, GAIRA follows Catalina, a young Colombian woman raised in exile, and Sebastián, a young Colombian MBA student who meet and fall for each other instantly. Their romance unfolds with the intensity of something destined and the silent pull of shared roots. But as their love deepens, they uncover a devastating link between their families — enemies on opposite sides of Colombia’s illegal internal conflict, bound by the violence that shaped their pasts. Their passionate connection is tested by the weight of history, as love becomes a bridge between inherited hatred and the possibility of forgiveness. GAIRA is an intimate story of love, generational wounds, and the silent wars that live within families. It asks whether the children of trauma can break free from a cycle their parents are too broken to escape.
Lorena Villanueva is a Colombian director and producer based in Los Angeles with over a decade of industry experience as an Assistant Director for TV shows and feature films. She completed her Master’s in Film Direction at Bande à Part Film School in Barcelona and she directed her first short, Fuoco Fatuo in Southern Italy. Back in Colombia she directed two more short films Inés (ColFilmNY ‘21) and Bed Smash (Festival SantaFe de Antioquia Best Short Film ‘24, FICNOR ‘24, Cinema Palooza ‘24). She is currently in post production of The Tide Inside, short film she directed and produced about a teenage love story unfolding amidst the psychological pressures of the deportation crisis in Los Angeles. She is also developing her feature directorial debut, Gaira, a love story in midst of the difficult search for forgiveness in the wake of Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict. She is the producer of the Teorema, feature film in development selected for the NALIP Accelerator ‘25, and is a member of the Colombian Academy of Motion Pictures.
Producer - Esteban Orozco
