CINEMA: Shaun de Waal
THE Cuban film Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate), directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, sheds a unique light on the world’s longest-running experiment in socialism.
Based on Senel Paz’s novella The Wolf, the Woods and the New Man, it tells the story of the relationship of a young man, David (Vladimir Cruz), a political science student and member of the Young Communist League, and a gay man or maric_n, Diego (Jorge Perugorria).
They could not be more different, both as people and as emblems of divergent elements of Cuba’s soul. David is unquestioningly faithful to the tenets of the revolution, but Diego is an aesthetic and political as well as a sexual dissident.
Prickly at first, the relationship develops in a direction unexpected by either man. It is not made clear when the film, made in 1993, is set, but it is evident that the homophobia that infected Cuba before and after the revolution is still active. In a land of Latin machismo, homosexuality is still regarded as dangerously akin to counter-revolutionary activity.
The ironies abound, as both Diego and David struggle with the strictures of a narrowly applied ideological regime. The joy of the film, however, is the subtlety and humour with which these themes — reasonably heavy ones of nationalism, belief, freedom and love — are handled.
In one scene, Diego offers David some of “the enemy’s drink”, whisky which must have been acquired illegally. David accepts, and Diego mocks him lightly: “Aren’t you afraid it could affect you ideologically?” he asks. David answers with an open-ended ambuiguity that eloquently sums up his conflicts, and those of a Cuba caught between political purity and personal desire: “When one has firm principles …” And he drinks.
Fresa y Chocolate tells its story with understated skill and gentle grace. Fidel’s pronouncements may be painted on the apartment building’s walls, but its denizens live lives more complex than can be dealt with on the level of ideology. Diego himself draws a line between art and propaganda, though the film has its own point to make. It does so, however, without stridency, relying on utterly convincing performances in a milieu that is fully realised and suffused with the strength and warmth of ordinary people.
Fresa y Chocolate will be screened at the Seven Arts cinema in Norwood until April 19. The screening on April 12, at 8pm, is a fundraiser for the Friends of Cuba Society. Ph: 483-1680