Panamanian Director Ana Elena Tejera Produces Film on Post-Canal Zone Return

Panama’s Ana Elena Tejera, whose debut feature 'Panquiaco' opened the International Film Festival of Panama in 2020, is currently in production on her new fiction film titled 'Culebra Cut' ('Corte Culebra'). The film features Mexican actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, known for roles in Alejandro G.

Iñárritu’s 'Bardo' and Lucrecia Martel’s 'Zama,' alongside D’Angelo Simmons, a firefighter from Colón province who was cast after a year of intensive searches for non-professional actors.

Set in the year 2000, shortly after the Panama Canal Zone was returned to Panamanian control in 1999, the story follows a group of Panamanian soldiers entering the formerly restricted area for the first time. The protagonist, Ernesto, played by Simmons, is a young soldier tasked with cleaning an old military school near an artificial lake created during the canal's construction, which displaced communities.

As Ernesto explores the area, he encounters a mysterious woman leading the Culebra community, a group that resisted displacement by hiding in old bunkers and mined territories.

The narrative examines the aftermath of nearly a century of U.S. occupation in the Canal Zone, which involved checkpoints, fences, and military presence that divided the country. Tejera has stated that her personal experience crossing into the zone at age nine influenced the film.

The story addresses questions of reinhabiting land displaced for a century and the legacy of 14 military bases and minefields. U.S. training center approximately 25 years after the zone's return. U.S. aircraft carrier recently transited the region through Panama, the first such occurrence since World War II, while Venezuelan oil has resumed passage through the canal.