Guantanamera

Interesting satire on the Cuban bureaucracy. During the special period. Undresses the weakness of communist systems and their inability to provide logical answers within their rigid structure.

It is one of Titon's last works. But you can see the hand of the best Cuban film director. An excellent acting collective bringing together many of the best actors available at that time on the island. It is not the best film of its director but it makes it a adjustable time. The skinny part is that its problems are very local, which means that it is not received abroad as a strawberry and chocola by example. Also that limitation in time and space means that over the years I go losing the luide and the sympathy of its extreno.

Guantanamera is a very laughable movie.The events sometimes seem absurd, however they are real.Guantanamera portrays situations that are common in daily Cuban life.The Director went beyond official parameters and adopted a critical attitude before the difficulties faced by people in actual Cuba.It is like Gutierrez Alea tells us: "let's laugh of our disgrace." Gutierrez Alea earned two things with this movie: the laugh of the audience, and the ire the President of his country in one of his speeches

The movie seems ambitious in its elements - a satire of bureaucratic Cuba (via the red tape associated with cross-country funeral delivery arrangements), frequent broad comedy (mainly in the truck driver's entanglements with his various women), much romantic wistfulness as the old man deals with a life largely wasted through lack of courage and Gina realizes the aridity of her marriage to Alonzo, within which her own creativity is stifled; the economic and cultural diversity of Cuba sketched in bits and pieces along the way. As executed, the overall framework for all of this - that of a loosely structured road movie - sets the tone more fully than might have been advisable: the rhythm reflects the leisurely procession along the road and the jauntily resigned renditions of the title song, which makes for good but not very provocative entertainment. The film seems to look back more than forward, with a pervasive sense of quiet nostalgia and regret about it, although there's also a gentle postivism that things can be overcome (with no thanks to the political infrastructure, it subtly suggests).

A small look at life in Cuba, "Guantanamera" portrays a world-famous Cuban singer returning to her hometown and suddenly dying. Her funeral procession reveals several things about the people involved, namely the love-starved existence of a woman sick of her creepy husband.

Obviously, we in the United States only get to hear about Cuba occasionally, so at the very least this movie should provide some insight into the state of affairs there (or just to hear the Cuban dialect, with its dropping of esses). But anything looking at people's individuals lives and how policies have affected them gets praise from me. We see how people have to abide by food rationing, among other things (of course, this is mainly due to the US blockade against the island). So I recommend this film.

Hearing the word Guantanamera, a word surge raced through my mind; Cuba, Guantanamo prison, Guatemala, or one of the most common Latin American songs? What could it be? I wondered. It is not much of the above but a sound track to a road movie Guantanamera, a death and love story.

In matters pertaining to birth, death and burial, people may not choose the place of birth or death, but they chose where they want to be buried. And this becomes a central issue in this road movie. It portrays the core values of a typical traditionalist Cuban family in a socialist country. It is for this reason that a dead body gets flown either out of state or country for burial. A song (Guantanamera), well spiced and crafted to fit each and every moment and character plays throughout the movie. This movie exposes the economics of a socialist run country. Road side vendors price their items in dollars. This suggests the instability of the national currency (possibly inflation).

When Gina puts on a new dress and let her hair run loose, it symbolizes self discovery and a sense of freedom. For the first time in this movie, she stands up to her husband and tells him that the days of subordination are over, she would not take off her dress. But also this could or symbolize people who live under a communist run regime, that there is limited freedom of choices. Those who are fed up of the system migrate, or export themselves to America through illegal means.

The directors did a great job in telling the general public about the flaws of a communist run country; corruption, dilapidating buildings and failed economy. Also the directors employed an excellent editing technique MONTAGE. Gina paces up and down and finally walks away from the funeral and finds comfort and love in Mariano. Both Gina and Mariano ecstatically share a smile and laughter whilst the funeral is still in procession. The MONTAGE suggests the anguish of people in Cuba go through in deserting their beloved country in search of freedom and better life.