Suite Habana

Grateful to Instituto Cervantes to bring this gem of a film to the Philippines ; a must see ; the soundtrack is also great. All the characters are really touching, especially the widower and his son. The film shows people struggling with their professional and private lives (a young construction worker who is also a ballet dancer !). Not knowing Cuba, I was wondering if contemporary Cuba is really like this : even the fridges are 1950s "vintage" ! Strangely enough, the films brought sadness and joy (or hope at least) at the same time and made me want to visit Cuba. 9/10

There's no need to have Spanish skills to understand the story told in this film. Blurring the lines between documentary and fiction (these are real people, telling "their" story, but they've been directed into scenes of "their lives).

At times it gets a bit cumbersome when the "characters" are not talking. You know they would be chatting away over their dinner of rice and beans but they are presented quiet and stoic.

But the story gets told without words and with amazing images of Havana. Having visited, I was overwhelmed by the truth in this movie, and impressed that the subtle political message in this "apolitical" film was able to get out of Fidel's Cuba in the 21st century.

But by the end of the film I was overcome with emotion and sat for moments after the final message, tears overwhelming me. This type of film is manipulative to the extreme, but it's also the type of thing where you don't mind being manipulated.

I've brought everyone I can convince to see it.

"People know my country as it is reflected in the world media. I tried to show how Cuban people actually live. I tried to show that we have dreams and hopes."

These were the words of the director; before I saw this excellent documentary in a special presentation for the foreign media, last November, in La Habana.

Technically, the movie has a fluent editing of parallel lives of Cuban people. The theme keeps the viewer a bit 'far' from the story; it is clear that the movie was made more for foreigners than the citizens. It has no dialogues; not even one word. Instead, it has very strong international visual symbols. So gains, the word 'Suite', its own international meaning.

Suite Habana, tries to show that excluded Cuban Society, is no different actually from all other societies; in a very calm and sensitive way.

I can hardly keep myself revealing the 'very clever' magnificent surprise of the documentary! It is better I stop writing now... Hoping to see it, at least once more.

It only took to see the trailer for me to break in tears.

I don't know to what point the movie is selfish in a way that if you never had to live in Cuba, the film can be "just a bit plain" and nothing else, the film will unfold flat before your eyes. However for "the others" the ones "had to leave" but lived there, every shot, every image and every sound counts. The Lighthouse at "El Morro", the Malecon, those delicious Cafe con Leches in the morning and sandwiches at lunch (if lucky) can mean a whole different deal. It was hard to watch the airport lounges and the runway, and the guy getting on the plane. Also the part where you can see an old Silvio still singing "Mariposas" after so many years, Is tough for anyone to go back and think of those moments, or think of the people that we left behind.

"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