When we were in Cuba in March, we asked several people to recommend Cuban films. Usually the first one mentioned was Strawberry and Chocolate, a 1993 film directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío and nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film of that year. We saw it via Netflix a couple of days ago.
It’s a first rate film, quite amusing, yet with deep engagement of politics and ideology – to a degree that it’s somewhat surprising it got past the Cuban censors back then. The film is set in Havana in the late 1970’s, though I saw nothing to date it earlier than when it was actually made. It’s the story of the meeting, the development of a friendship, and the attempted seduction of mind and body between two seemingly as-different-as-they-could-be young men: David, a militantly ideological university student, gorgeous, heterosexual (though a virgin); and Diego, a somewhat older, obviously gay artist and arts advocate, deeply distressed and in constant trouble by the government’s anti-gay and anti-free artistic expression policies. From antagonism to friendship to deep concern, though never overtly sexual, their relationship grows, and David’s eyes on the world are opened far wider. His time with Diego infuriates some of David’s more narrowly ideological peers, and he is labeled gay because of the association. He also develops a relationship with Nancy, an older party member who’s part of the neighborhood watch, carries on black market trade, and lives in the apartment above Diego’s.
The film is funny and penetrating, the discussions of social policy, government, and culture well done and intellectually balanced, and the scenes of Havana delightful. The acting is excellent and the capture of time and place near perfect. For those who’ve been there, the apartments are in a building you’ll recognize that now houses La Guarida restaurant on the top floor and roof. Well worth seeing.