TORONTO TANGO 8 FESTIVAL ★ MARATHON, September 25 - 28, 2025

Best & Biggest Toronto Tango Festival & Tango Marathon

The FIGS Matter!

Watch When Figs Ripen TRAILER

Why should you make time to see this film? Because in When Figs Ripen, you are invited into the intimate world of Nito García and Elba Sottile — two maestros whose lives have become inseparable from the art of Argentine tango itself. As in many stories of great and lasting love, tragedy sometimes becomes the path to renewal. In 1970, just two months apart, both Nito and Elba lost their first spouses in car accidents. Three years later, they met again at a dance. What began as shared grief blossomed into a love that would carry them for over fifty years — as husband and wife, as dance partners, and as legends of tango. From Junín to Mar del Plata, and later across the world, they performed, taught, and embodied tango’s spirit. As the New York Times once described, watching them dance is to witness “suspenseful give and take,” “rapturous wit,” and “tender reconciliation” unfold seamlessly within a single embrace. Their journey was never easy. They endured the grief of lost loved ones, the relentless demands of touring, Elba’s chronic back pain, and Nito’s five heart surgeries that left him dancing with a pacemaker. The pandemic silenced tango halls for years. And yet, after all these trials, they returned to the dance floor — fragile yet radiant — proving that tango can be, quite literally, medicine for the heart. As Nito himself once said: “Nuestra historia es como el tango: el hombre marca el paso, pero camina siguiendo a la mujer.” (Our story is like tango: the man initiates the step, but walks following the woman.) In this single line lies a philosophy not only of love but of history itself. Tango, like life, is not domination but dialogue. The woman carries equal — even decisive — importance: she interprets, responds, creates the space for transformation. Their story reveals the essence of partnership — a dance of equality where man and woman shape the rhythm of life together. This truth echoes beyond tango: into personal histories, into Argentina’s cultural narrative, and into our shared human longing for connection, dignity, balance — and healing. Why do they matter now? When Figs Ripen is not only a film for tango lovers. It is a film for anyone who believes in resilience, in the endurance of love, in the healing power of music and dance. It is about loss and renewal, about memory and legacy, about what it means to be held, to be seen, to be remembered — to be healed. Stay for this film. Let Nito and Elba’s embrace remind you why tango — and life itself — is worth celebrating. As the fig ripens slowly into sweetness, so too we and our art blossom like a charming tango — radiant in the fullness of time and love.

Written by June Wang, Producer & Director of When Figs Ripen

Toronto · September 1, 2025, with love ❤