One Way or Another

Sara Gómez's film is set in the Miraflores district of Havana and describes daily life in Cuba after the revolution. The relationship beginning between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a teacher, sets two views of the world against each other: she judges the families of the children at her school, while he is bound by the rules of male solidarity in the neighbourhood. The film places documentary sections among its fiction, bringing real footage of slum clearance, new housing and religious groups into the story. That mixture is its most original quality. Gómez was the first woman to direct a feature in Cuba; she died at thirty-one while the film was still being edited and it was completed by her colleagues. Who it's for: viewers who like political cinema and mixtures of documentary and fiction. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a well-behaved narrative; the film is deliberately fragmented.