Hello Hemingway

Seen at the Latin American Film Festival at the Westgarth Theatre, Northcote VIC

Cecil says: I went to this one on my own as part of my Vintage Victoria project, because I wanted to see the Westgarth Theatre. So I just chose whatever film they had on next.

I was really pleased to see this Cuban period drama made in 1990 so not a new release, but interesting as it was set in 1956 as political unrest was growing in Cuba.

Funnily enough, it came hot on the heels of our seeing Ladies in Black (still not quite done our review of that one), which was also set in the 1950s and had as its central focus a school girl coming-of-age.

The Cuban one was fascinating and showed the difficulty of the bright, bookish Larita, who dreams of getting a scholarship to study in the States, but is up against a bunch of posh kids from private schools. It's not her education which lets her down, but her lack of connection and her rather unsettled home life.

Things are difficult at home as the uncle she lives with (along with her Mum and auntie, cousin and grandmother) loses his job as a policeman. It's not a job he enjoys anyway, as he has to see things he can't describe to the ladies at home (presumably torture of left-wing revolutionaries and activists), but he is the main breadwinner in the household.

Suddenly Larita's dreams of university and getting to America seem stupid romantic fantasies to the rest of her family, and indeed to her revolutionary boyfriend Victor who wonders why she'd want to leave him and the Association just when things are getting interesting.

It's a classic tale of dreamy teenagers, passionate politics, poverty and survival, with some lovely observations on life threaded through it.

Hemingway is visible but out of reach. That is Hemingway himself, since he lives in the mansion up on the hill and he is seen from time to time, but never seems to be home when Larita needs his help.

But also Hemingway's novels, which Larita discovers via the most endearing character in the film, the guy who runs the local bookshop, but which her boyfriend Victor regards as romantic rubbish and a fantasy.

I loved the shots of the coastline in Havana, the Malecon. Especially as I have been there for one of my old jobs. What intrigued me even more was that this film was made three years even before I was there in 1993 so must have looked pretty similar to what I saw myself, even though supposedly set a few decades earlier. (After all, one of the beauties of Havana is the old buildings and cars, since nobody has had money to do terrible 'development' since the revolution in 1959).

I really enjoyed this film and was very glad I had timed my visit to the Westgarth to coincide with its start in the Latin American Film Festival 2018.

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