Strawberry and Chocolate

Havana, 1979. David is at university, loyal to the party, and his girlfriend has just married somebody else. In an ice cream parlour Diego sits down beside him. Diego is an artist, openly homosexual, and keeps censored books at home. At first David treats him as an assignment; a friend tells him Diego is dangerous to the state and asks him to watch the man. David goes to the flat. There are books, records, conversation. As the assignment goes on, the relationship with the man he is watching becomes the real matter. Tomas Gutierrez Alea directs with Juan Carlos Tabio. Jorge Perugorria, Vladimir Cruz and Mirta Ibarra are in the cast. The film is adapted from a story by Senel Paz. It is a Cuban, Mexican and Spanish co-production. The film won a prize at the 1994 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film, Cuba's first nomination. The matter it treats is tolerance; the film says directly how the revolution shut out its own people. The narrative does not draw Diego as a victim; he is combative, sardonic and loves his country. It was made in Cuba and brings an open criticism of the official line of the period. The narrative does not tie the relationship between the two men to a romantic solution. Nancy is the third strand of the story and carries the neighbourhood line. Havana's worn buildings and the shortages are visible inside daily life. The ending closes on a parting. Its limit is form; the narrative is talky, the scenes happen in flats, and the pace is slow. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American cinema and political drama. Who it is not for: it is talky, slow, and the ending sad.