Bruising for Besos

Completed201681 min

Yoli has built a life in Los Angeles with a chosen family and an artistic practice that offers a way to work through difficult memories. Meeting…Read more +Read less −

Yoli has built a life in Los Angeles with a chosen family and an artistic practice that offers a way to work through difficult memories. Meeting Daña, a Puerto Rican nurse, brings an intense new relationship into that carefully assembled world. Their attraction develops alongside histories and expectations that neither can leave entirely in the past. For Yoli, intimacy reopens patterns she hoped distance and independence would help her escape. Daña has conflicts of her own around family, faith and visibility. The film follows two women whose desire for connection is real but does not automatically provide safety, exploring how creativity, community and self-knowledge might interrupt a cycle that love alone cannot resolve.

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Drama Romance

Sapphic characters & cast

Adelina Anthony

as Yoli

Main sapphic character

Exact-name performer biography publicity portrait, matched to film credit

Caro Zeller

as Daña

Main sapphic character

Matched credited performer publicity portrait; provenance retained, editorial and reuse rights review pending

YOUR FIRST LOOK

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Details & credits

Country: United States
Language: English, Spanish
Premiere: 2016-06-19
Runtime: 81 minutes
Director: Adelina Anthony

Exact-film catalogue poster; provenance and rights pending

Artwork source & permission status

Editorial review approved — rights not independently confirmed

Exact-film catalogue poster; provenance and rights pending

Original publication ↗

Sources & editorial notes (5)

Last researched 2026-10-31. Editorially approved.

year: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
genres: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
status: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
country: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
language: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
directors: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
description: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
trailer url: Official exact-film festival programme embedded trailer
western cast: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
premiere date: Cine+Mas co-presenter’s 10 June 2016 programme lists Bruising for Besos on Sunday 19 June at 7pm and Tuesday 21 June; retrieved programme text
runtime minutes: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
classification note: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence
representation type: Exact film identity and substantive sapphic lead/story evidence