Experiencing Interruptions?

IUS of Time

In an Asturian village, a stormy past and an uncertain future intertwine in an encounter between two lost and lonely souls.

Luca, a young photographer, arrives in the village in search of inspiration and his roots. He stays at the home of Xuan, a cheesemaker and former teacher, a reclusive man living in isolation and socially shunned under the shadow of old sexual rumors.

Despite the initial tension between them, distrust gives way to an unexpected connection: Luca’s camera focuses on Xuan's work, and Xuan begins to rekindle a lost enthusiasm for life.

The scars of Xuan's past and the wandering youth of Luca challenge the bond between two people from different worlds.

  • Roberto F. Canuto
    Director
  • Xiaoxi Xu
    Director
  • Roberto F. Canuto
    Writer
  • Xiaoxi Xu
    Writer
  • Enrique Pérez Romero
    Writer
  • Roberto F. Canuto
    Producer
  • Manuel Pizarro
    Key Cast
    "Xuan"
  • Pelayo Carrizo
    Key Cast
    "Luca"
  • Andy Almar
    Key Cast
    "Rodri"
  • Laura Ubach
    Key Cast
    "Cova"
  • Martina Bueno
    Key Cast
    "Tere"
  • Pablo Valdés
    Key Cast
    "Tenor"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    IUS del tiempo
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, LGBTIQ+, rural
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 20, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    Spain
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 53 Huesca International Film Festival
    Huesca
    Spain
    June 12, 2025
    Official Selection (awards not announced)
  • 27 OUTshine International Film Festival
    Miami, Florida
    United States
    April 20, 2025
    International Premiere
    Official Selection Competition
  • Tampere Manse Pride by 56 Tampere Film Festival
    Tampere
    Finland
    June 12, 2025
    Nordic Premiere
    Arthouse Cinema Niagara Screening
  • 30th OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival
    Durham, North Carolina
    United States
    August 17, 2025
    North Carolina Premiere
  • 29 MIX, Festival Mix Mexico
    Mexico City
    Mexico
    June 23, 2025
    Mexican Premiere
  • 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival
    Mumbai
    India
    June 6, 2025
    Asian Premiere
    Official Selection (awards not announced)
  • 14th Rio LGBTQIA+ International Film Festival
    Rio de Janeiro
    Brazil
    June 5, 2025
    Official Selection (awards not announced)
  • 12th International Queer Film Festival Playa del Carmen
    Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo
    Mexico
    November 23, 2025
  • X Festival LGTBI Centro Niemeyer
    Aviles
    Spain
    April 12, 2025
    Official Selection Competition
  • III Festival de Cine Rural y Montaña de Cervera de Pisuerga
    Cervera de Pisuerga
    Spain
    May 14, 2025
    Best Cinematography / Official Selection
  • XI Cortogijon Film Festival
    Gijón, Asturias
    Spain
    April 4, 2025
    Premiere
    Official Selection Competition
Distribution Information
  • Selected Films Distribution
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Roberto F. Canuto, Xiaoxi Xu

Director Biography - Roberto F. Canuto, Xiaoxi Xu

BIOGRAPHY ROBERTO F. CANUTO & XU XIAOXI

Roberto F. Canuto
Film director and screenwriter from Asturias (Spain). He has worked in China for nearly a decade. He graduated in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, after obtaining a degree in the specialty of Audiovisual Communication.
He moved to London dedicating himself to professions far from the world of cinema until he resumed his passion in Los Angeles (USA) by studying a master's degree in film directing at the New York Film Academy, at Universal Studios (Hollywood). As of 2008 he directs several short films. Those years began his collaboration with Xu Xiaoxi. His two student and graduation projects premiered at festivals. After that, he directed various fiction films and commercials in China and Spain.
In 2019 he was the director of the 1st Spanish Film Festival of Chengdu, organized by the Embassy of Spain in China, Ermei Studio 1958 and his production company, Almost Red Prod.

Xiaoxi Xu
Film director and screenwriter from Chengdu, China. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) in 2006, specializing in Video-art, with his experimental short film The Fluxus of ID.
In 2009 he completed a Master of Film Directing (MFA) at the New York Film Academy, at its headquarters in Universal Studios (Hollywood). He directed several short films in celluloid and digital format and collaborates on many others as director of photography (most notably Toto Forever, being nominated by his academy for the Kodak Cinematography Scholarship Awards). He graduated with his work Desire Street, co-directed with Roberto F. Canuto, with whom he will collaborate ever since. All of his films are shown on the film festival circuit and he worked in various fiction films and commercials in China and Spain.
He currently resides in Spain, establishing there a subsidiary of his production company Almost Red Prod., founded in China almost a decade ago.

Directors Filmography

Authors with multiple awards at international festivals, especially with Sunken Plum (Chen Li, 2017). That film premiered in more than 50 countries and has official selections at prestigious festivals such as Raindance in London, Seminci in Valladolid, FICX, Malaga Film Festival or Outfest in Los Angeles. In addition, it won almost 30 awards and nominations such as the Silver Caravel at the Cartagena Film Festival, the three awards at the Punto di Vista Festival in Sardinia or the two obtained at the Cortada Festival in Vitoria, and with more than 200 international screenings.

Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi previously directed the other two parts of their Chengdu Invisible trilogy: Floating Melon (Fu Guo) and Ni Jing, Thou Shall Not Steal (Ni Jing), works that also received numerous awards. In their filmography we find a Spanish-Chinese short film titled Advent (Ad-vientu). Previously his works were filmed in Los Angeles, with titles like Toto Forever or Desire Street.

Recently, they are developing several fiction short film projects and a feature film, as well as a feature-length documentary project about non-binary individuals.

2025 IUS of time (IUS del tiempo)
2024 Sunset in Paris (Atardecer en París)
2024 Blow Down (Blow Down:Colapso)
2022 Water Circles Under Cotton Clouds (Círculos sobre agua, bajo nubes de algodón)
2017 Sunken Plum (Chen Li)
2016 Advent (Ad-vientu)
2015 Floating Melon (Fu Guo)
2013 Ni Jing: Thou Shalt Not Steal (Ni Jing)
2011 Desire Street
2010 Toto Forever (dir. Roberto F. Canuto)
2010 Mei Mei (dir. Xu Xiaoxi)
2008 The Fluxus of ID (dir. Xu Xiaoxi)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This project developed “almost from the start as if it had a life of its own, with the initial idea sprouting into new ones that we only had to work to connect.”
Collaborating with Enrique Pérez Romero on this story has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our careers. Together, we crafted a narrative rich in psychological and emotional depth. “It was a challenge to shape it into a short film where storytelling and abstraction could move hand in hand.”
“Luca and Xuan are from two completely different worlds—different times, places, and ways of understanding and being in the world.” The main challenge was to convey to the audience the sense of wonder and strangeness that comes from two such distinct universes meeting, mingling, and being forced to coexist, if only for a few days.
The film blends “real descriptions of Asturias as we know it with symbols of things that can’t be shown in images.” This mix of the material and the imagined is one of the film’s most defining qualities, and something we hope leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.
We wanted to create a story that could be interpreted in different ways: as a flash from the past that barely touches the present; as a rich yet impossible meeting of two people who were never meant to meet; or as an abstract reconstruction of emotions scarred by pain, uncertainty, and loss.
“We didn’t want any single theme to consume the others.” At its core, there’s a love story here—perhaps forbidden, perhaps dark, perhaps joyful—later retold by others from another era. There’s also the clash between urban and rural life, between generations, between different times, which from the outside barely seem compatible.
Time itself is just a way of seeing things as we wish they could be. And that’s the perspective we took on the joy and suffering of characters who are, in some way, the same person, yet also different; who cross paths for a brief moment, showing us the lingering traces the past leaves on the lives of the living and the dead.
For us, it was essential to give voice to the stories of same-sex couples from the past who, in times of intolerance, fought for their love, sustained often only by something ‘pure and true.’ In the closing credits, we pay tribute to these shadows from the past. Through evocative images, we celebrate those who, despite prejudice and discrimination, made love and the pursuit of social justice their greatest act of resistance. This homage is not only meant to honor their struggle but also to inspire new generations to continue striving for a more just and inclusive world.
Black-and-white photographs are, perhaps, the medium that best connects emotions with the past. In this case, images of same-sex couples in history directly speak to the viewer, connecting the emotions in these photographs with the story they have just experienced.
Each viewer may interpret the ending differently, but these final images also offer a tangible glimpse into the beauty and pain that inhabit human experiences where hope and injustice coexist.