Borscht

Xemoland

2011
Daniel Cardenas

The story of a seven year-old boy who is led to believe there is a portal to an alternate reality where all his dreams come true. However, the boy quickly realizes that Xemoland is not the place of his dreams, but his nightmares.

Daniel Cardenas created this film for Borscht 6.

PRESS

"The short’s conventional cartoon style plays against the atypical autobiographical story of growing up in the early-Nineties which lends the film a unique tone." Cartoon Brew

"Before there were terrorists, there were older brothers. They convinced our five-year-old selves that vacuum cleaners were really crazed, human-eating machines and that Brussels sprouts were actually decomposing alien heads. Thanks to them, we are now veggie-hating adults with really dirty floors. But local filmmaker Daniel Cardenas should appreciate his older sibling's bullying. He transformed their torment into an animated short that was just chosen to compete at the Sundance Film Festival. It was one of four U.S. shorts selected from over 6,000 submissions. Some of you may have seen "Xemoland" last year at the Borscht Film Festival, when a working cut screened as part of the CCCV series." Miami New Times

""Xemoland" is one of only four animated shorts picked from the U.S. The main character in the film is named Corey, based loosely on Cardenas' life in the early 90's. It takes place in the Ocean VIllage apartment complex where he grew up in Key Biscayne." NBC 6