Lista de espera

I saw this film as it was presented on the Oslo cinema days, a few days ago. And it really has the touch i long for in films, the warmth, the people, the life, the love. I liked it very much to the time it turns - but it's a good one after that too. Watch it, enjoy it, and enjoy life as it's handed to you. :)

When I saw this film on a trans Atlantic flight from Madrid to Miami I really enjoyed it a lot. It was great to see in which way Cubans interprete and defend their revolution. > Excellent actuation, excellent director - only the music lacked a little bit. After having seen "Fresa y chocolate" and "Guantanamera" I can only hope for more films by Juan Carlos Tabio.

The comedy gives some ideas of the economical problems in Cuba, its objective and subjective difficulties to solve them. The passengers awaiting for a bus, which never comes, got slept and all dream the same thing. In that dream they decided to paint and to restore the terminal, and some couple had time to fall in love. The society is well shown, a young lady trying to go marry a Spanish businessman, a young man dreaming better life, a blind man who is not blind, an egoist and fat man with food stored when the other passengers have nothing to eat, a lady looking for herbs to prepare beverage for everyone, an inmigrant from Canary Islands who loves Cuba as his motherland, a couple with problems (more economical than any other) of living together,a very serious and responsible administrator of the terminal and the extremist who looks only for the directives and not for solving the difficulties. If you want to have a small idea of Cuba you may like to see this film.

If you like romance, humor, and a fresh story, this movie is for you. It deals in a poetic and unexpected way with the day to day difficulties in Cuba. The acting is very convincing, and the plot is full of unexpected twists.

I liked it a lot, and I hope you will.

I have never been to Cuba and I don't know that much about it either, especially not about their cinema. So, when I saw that this movie was on television I immediately taped it. I've seen it now and it left me with a double feeling. I liked it, but not as much as I expected. I loved the subtle critics that it gave on Castro's bureaucratic regime and it gives a very good idea on what Cuba's society must be like with its economic problems and helpful people who have learned to live with all the difficulties in their country.

A group of people has to stay in a bus station because the only bus that the station has, broke down. You'll see a young lady who wants to marry a Spanish businessman to get out of Cuba, a man who pretends to be blind because of the many advantages handicapped people get, an egoist and fat man with food stored when the other passengers have nothing to eat, the extremist public servant who looks only for the directives and not for a solution for all the difficulties...

What I didn't like that much about the movie was it's pace. I thought it was a bit slow... from time to time much wasn't happening, but perhaps that was exactly what the director was looking for. Perhaps this is how he wanted to show us the boredom of these people.

All in all it isn't a bad movie. This isn't a comedy that will make you laugh out loud, but it sure will make you smile several times and it gives you an insight on what Cuba is like. I give it a 6.5/10.