"Strawberry and Chocolate" A film review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL March 11, 1995 The number of Cuban films that have had broad distribution in the United States in the last 35 years is practically zero so the appearance of "Strawberry and Chocolate" in mainstream movie houses--not to mention its nom- ination for an Academcy Award for best foreign film--is a curiosity at the very least. Not that there haven't been many, high quality films made in Cuba since the Revolution. ICAIC, the Cuban film institute, has consistently turned out some excellent films over the years and trained some very gifted filmmakers whose work has been seen and appreciated in Latin American countries and at film festivals. Their products are not mere propaganda for the Castro regime; many have turned a critical eye toward governmental policies (and some have been censored for it). "Strawberry and Chocolate" was very interesting to me in a variety of ways, but let me say first that the most appealing thing about it are th performances of its two leading actors, Vladimir Cruz as David and Jorge Perugorria as Diego. They are beautifully cast and do a perfectly wonderful job creating these characters. The film is actually a "period piece" set in Havana in 1979, a time in which life in Havana was much more affluent and easy than it was in 1993 when this film was made, because it was still a time when the Soviet-bloc was strong and Cuba had Eastern European trading partners and Soviet economic subsidies. Cars and buses filled the streets, plentiful food and wine was available in stores and restaurants that Cubans could patronize, and, despite the ban on private commerce and owning U.S. dollars there was a black market economy that could yield access to things like Johnny Walker scotch and Indian tea. If the depiction in the film is accurate, gay men in 1979 were able to cruise in the park in the upscale Vedado section of Havana fairly openly, though zealous Revolutionaries found them suspect and subjected them to surveillance. (I kept being distracted by the street scenes which didn't seem to come from stock footage--though they may have---wondering how they managed to recreate this relatively prosperous 1979 look in today's Havana which has deteriorated so badly since then (even more so now than when I was there in 1991). In the film Diego laments the fact that this once most beautiful of cities has been allowed to fall into near ruin. In the film, David is quickly established as a heterosexual university student and political activist, son of a laborer who owes his opportunity to get an education to the Revolution and is serious about paying his debt and doing his part for the Party. The education he's getting is pretty lousy, it seems, but his politics are right. While eating ice cream at Coppelia, Havana's best-known outdoor ice cream stand, David is joined by a very campy Diego who tries every lure he can think of to get David to come up to his apartment (he had bet his friend Germain that he could pick David up). He is nothing if not charming and he does, indeed, get David to go home with him on the pretext that he has some photos of David from a play he was in at the university. The wary David doesn't stay long in Diego's art and object-filled apartment but when he tells his comrades back at the dorm that he went to this gay man's apartment and saw religious art, Scotch whiskey and other contraband things, they convince him i t's his duty to go back and put Diego under surveillance and gather as much information as he can. This he dutifully does, becoming friends with Diego and his neighbor Nancy who is supposedly the local Vigilance Committee member but without being the politically correct zealot that might seem to imply. She's a former prostitute put out of work by the revolution who is sometimes suicidal and who dotes on Diego and, as time goes on, on David, as well. The film mostly chronicles the development of the friendship between these three, and how knowing one another changes them, their politics, their interactions with others. If there are any villains, David's super politically correct dorm roommate qualifies. The overall feel of the film is positive, life and friendship affirming, where the personal takes precedence over the political. The Tampa audience for this film was interesting, I'd say about a third gay men, about a third older Cuban immigrants, and a third others. Though some Cuban-American groups are upset that this film is being distributed in violation breakingof the 34 year US embargo of Cuba (for which we apparently owe a vote there weof thanks to Robert Redford) there certainly are Cubans here who wanted to see the film and seemed to enjoy it very much. For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. Copyright 1995 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint this review without the permission of the author.