‘This Film Is Urgent,’ Says the Panamanian Director of ‘Culebra Cut’ as the U.S. Military Conducts Exercises on Bases It Left Decades Ago (EXCLUSIVE)

Apr 7, 2026 10:18am PT ‘This Film Is Urgent,’ Says the Panamanian Director of ‘Culebra Cut’ as the U.S. Military Conducts Exercises on Bases It Left Decades Ago (EXCLUSIVE)

Panama’s Ana Elena Tejera is shooting 'Culebra Cut,' fronted by Daniel Giménez Cacho, star of Alejandro G. Iñarritu's 'Bardo,' and set in 2000 just after the Canal Zone had returned to Panama after 100 years of U.S. occupation

By Anna Marie de la Fuente

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Anna Marie de la Fuente

@adelafuente1

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Ana Elena Tejera rallying the troops in a behind the scene pic of 'Culebra Cut' Credit: Frank Málaga, Courtesy of La Colmena Prods.

Panama’s Ana Elena Tejera whose poetic debut feature “Panquiaco” opened IFF Panama in 2020, is in production on her new fiction film, “Culebra Cut “(“Corte Culebra”). It features Daniel Giménez Cacho (“Bardo” by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, “Zama “by Lucrecia Martel) playing alongside non-pro actor D’Angelo Simmons who in his everyday life is a firefighter in the province of Colón and was discovered after a year of intensive casting.

Set in the year 2000, in the aftermath of the Canal Zone’s return to Panama, “Culebra Cut” revisits this pivotal moment through an intimate yet political lens, examining the lingering wound of a land molded by nearly 100 years of occupation.