"Suite" is a piece of music; well, that may be so until you see this visual jewel: music is converted into images. No great or famous actors or actresses - just simple ordinary people living out their daily lives in La Habana, Cuba, that so-poorly treated country.
But forget any and every political implication: this film has nothing to do with such pretensions.
"Suite Habana" is a splendid portrait of Cubans, from kids to the most elderly, so splendidly photographed, hopping from scene to scene, among the different persons making up this visual poem. There are no words to describe this; indeed, there is a saying which says "an image is worth a thousand words". And in this film of a little more than 84 minutes you have millions of words which get nowhere near the story-less story unfolding before your eyes: because these are real people living real lives - not actors trying to interpret some such rôle. Here you have the beauty of Cuban citizens en La Habana, white, black, mestizo or whatever, which just sums up into one glorious film.
It does not even matter that the portrayal is La Habana: it might just as well have been Manila, Kolkota, Mumbai, Kabul, Manaus.................. but Fernando Pérez and Raúl Pérez Ureta have masterfully carried out one of those little jewels that the great mass of the public will not appreciate, let alone comprehend, and ably helped by the suitable music of Alejandro and Cisneros (occasionally a little reminiscent of the music by Vangelis "1492: Conquest of Paradise")(qv).
I thoroughly recommend "Calle 54" (qv) and "Buena Vista Social Club", and "Suite Habana" will make more sense to you. But in no way should you see any of these films thinking of political stances: no such implications are present. Menos mal.........
Ah, no need for subtitles: there is very little dialogue, and what little there is, is obvious to any intelligent viewer with the scenes unfolding such that "translations" are totally unnecessary.
This is just one beautiful "suite" - a concerto, a symphony, a whole choral interlude. My vote is a little more than the 8,0 for 141 voters at present registered on IMDb
