lunes, 14 de noviembre de 2016

Cuba: Fatherland or Death. A wrenching examination of an island and its abyss



Patria o Muerte. Cuba: Fatherland or Death, on view at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, is one of those films that you should not miss. This is an excellent documentary on the social, ethical and civic reality of Cuba at this minute. Several individuals who inhabit the Island tell the camera the routines of their daily life, their anguish, their frustrations, their dreams, their truncated illusions. And they do it with admirable honesty and bravery, in a way that it is almost impossible not to shed a few tears. Yes, we are dealing with a deeply human artwork, from which transparent and intense emotions can be breathed, as well as great pain for the lost homeland (a shattered country, sunk in the mire of absolute loss of the most genuine human values).



Bloggers, members of alternative musical bands, a writer rarely published on the Island, a singer, a graffiti artist, a painter, an architect, a transgender, a housewife are just some of the characters that draw a complex and polyhedral landscape, almost surreal, difficult to understand for those who do not live the drama from within.




This documentary is impressive. Shocking and heartbreaking. It is hard to see on the screen the most intimate essence of several generations that have lost all utopias, and live in an immovable present, without a projection of future, without being able to elucidate the "why" or the reason for their existence in the world. This is sad, devastating. It is a Cuba where ethics has become a fairy tale. A country where evasion seems the safest key to success.


And all of the above is presented in a compact script, very well
structured, where nothing is left over and nothing is missing. That is why the 57 minutes of time pass with great speed, without monotony or boredom. Rather the viewer remains eager to see more, much more. Filmmakers handle the virtues of synthesis, ellipsis and tropological subtlety in a prodigious way. Likewise, the movements and degrees of camera angulation, the cuts and changes of planes, as well as the soundtrack, speak of an impressive dominion of the cinematographic trade. Not to mention photography, without doubt full of intelligent and daring visual metaphors, which end up becoming genuine poetry.



There is no political rhetoric in this documentary. What matters here are the lives of the citizens, those anonymous heroes who struggle in the midst of their stormy and harsh everyday reality, while others decided to leave. It is not a democratic model or a political proposal that is the subject of discussion. It is, however, something as simple as a house that collapses before the eyes of a child who does not understand anything, or the indifference of a humble woman who has lost all desire to live, without even understanding the causes of her lethargy.



We are, in short, before a complete film work. A masterpiece that sweats talent and honesty. For my part, I could not contain a single one of my tears. I have cried a lot, yes, when I see my effigy in the mirror.




PATRIA O MUERTE: CUBA, FATHERLAND OR DEATH was directed by Olatz López Garmendia; executive producer: Julian Schnabel; co-producer: Miguel A. Sirgado; cinematographer: Claudio Fuentes Madan; editor: Ismael de Diego. The film´s debut on cable TV will be on MONDAY, NOV. 28 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.



Píter Ortega Núñez

Art Critic

Miami, November 2016