/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-CUBA: Groundbreaking Work in Theme and Technology

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Oct 17 2000 (IPS) - Cuban filmmaker Humberto Solás is putting the finishing touches on a new film, which promises to take on such controversial issues as the disintegration of families on the island caused by the waves of emigration during the last few decades.

With the title ‘Miel para Ochún’ (Honey for Ochún), in reference to the offerings made to one of the ‘orishas’ of the Afro-Latin American religion known as Yoruba, the film tells the story of a man’s return to his country of birth, which he had left behind at age five.

Forty years later, he is trying to find a relative and begins a journey that, according to the few details of the script Solás was willing to reveal, leads him to the roots of his cultural and individual identity.

The leading roles are played by Isabel Santos (who performed in the film ‘Clandestinos’), Mario Limonta (‘De cierta manera’ – One Way or Another) and Jorge Perugorría (‘Fresa y Chocolate’ – Strawberry and Chocolate).

“The major theme is the unity of Cubans,” said Solás, adding that the film is a tragi-comedy because, in his opinion, it is the genre that best expresses the idiosyncratic contradictions of the Cuban people.

Considered one of the luminaries of the Cuban film industry, the director of ‘Lucía,’ ‘Cecilia,’ and ‘Hombre de éxito’ (Man of Success) had not released a film since ‘El siglo de las luces’ (The Century of Lights) in 1992, based on the novel by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier.

He returns to the big screen with a script written by his sister, Elia Solás, who goes beyond the local focus to reflect on the contradictions that persist between the industrial North and the developing South and the need to find new social spaces.

It is a problematic common to the entire Latin American region and, from the director’s point of view, “typical of the end and beginning of a millennium”.

Solás, for the first time in the history of Cuban film, used digital video technology, which allowed him to reduce production costs and travel the length of the island with his team of actors and technicians – 25 people.

The filmmaker told a press conference that the project would have become very complicated if he had filmed in 35 mm, while with digital technology he was able to reconcile economics with aesthetics.

It also meant, he said, that he was able to “rediscover the enthusiasm of the beginning of my career,” in the 1960s, when with camera in hand he made films such as ‘Manuela’.

It also marks a return to his original artistic aspirations to mix film and fiction with documentary.

His return to his roots contrasts with the super-productions Solás embarked on in the 1980s (‘Cecilia,’ ‘El siglo de las luces’), efforts that were later impossible to duplicate for the Cuban film industry due to the economic crisis that has devastated the island since 1990.

In addition, the fact that ‘Miel para Ochún’ goes beyond the traditional settings of Cuban films would have made the project extremely expensive if it had been shot using more traditional methods.

The movie includes scenes in the city of Baracoa, the first village founded by the Spanish in Cuba, located on the east coast.

One of the greatest sources of satisfaction for Solás is that the script allows him to show off the beauty and geographic diversity of the country, which he says is generally reduced to snapshots of the historic centre of Havana.

The travels of the lead character show five culturally different areas of Cuba’s eastern region. “It gives an idea of how heterogeneous we are, of the dissimilar elements that make up our idiosyncrasy,” stated Solás.