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Oliver Stone fined for filming in Cuba
BY PEDRO DE LA HOZ – Granma daily staff writer –
THE U.S. Treasury Department’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control has just fined
well-known filmmaker Oliver Stone for violating the
laws of what they euphemistically refer to as an
embargo, actually nothing more than a barbaric,
brutal, systematic blockade, universally recognized
as such and condemned by an overwhelming majority in
the United Nations.
 Stone
and the production company Ixtlan were accused of
having traveled to Cuba in 2202 and 2003 to shoot
footage for two films on the leader of the Cuban
Revolution. The newspaper El Nuevo Herald,
voice of the anti-Cuban mafia in south Florida,
carried the news in its December 12 edition.
In medieval times, such edicts
were published as an admonition. The modern-day
Inquisition is taking up that ancient practice: the
message, obviously, is directed against those who
try to exercise their right to creativity and
expression, or to objectively reflect the realities
of Cuba, even someone like Oliver Stone, whom nobody
in their right minds could call anti-American after
watching – as hundreds of Havana spectators have
done during the 28th Havana Film Festival – his
movie, World Trade Center, about the
atrocious terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.
Everyone is very familiar with
Stone’s vicissitudes in making his films on Fidel.
The first, Comandante, which he made for the
HBO cable TV network, could not be screened when it
was supposed to be because of pressures from the
Miami-based anti-Cuban lobby and its right-wing
sponsors.
Stone had to cede to demands to
go back and film again, this time including
interviews with employees of the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, whose capacity for histrionics,
in the service of demonizing the Cuban Revolution,
was demolished in the new production, Looking for
Fidel.
It is very likely that the OFAC
officials noted Stone’s statements during the
launching of Looking for Fidel in the San
Sebastián Film Festival, Spain: “Castro is a great
host,” he said. “He looks you straight in the eye.
He gave me the impression that he trusted me, and I
like that (...) I was able to ask all of my
questions about internal conflicts in the country,
the future of Cuba after Castro, and the
international pressure that is placed on Cuba,
especially by the president of the United States,
George W. Bush. (...) Castro is one of the wisest
men there are; he is a survivor and a Quixote. I
admire his Revolution, his faith in himself and his
honesty.”
For the current U.S. authorities,
a price must be paid for a free and unprejudiced
opinion like the one above. Hence, cracks and
contrivances must be found, despite the fact that
Stone’s producers complied with the cumbersome
license process, to punish and impede people from
thinking for themselves.
It doesn’t matter that they make
even more obvious something that is already known:
the victimization of the U.S. people themselves,
prevented from traveling freely to the island, by
those who impose the criminal blockade on Cuba.
(Translated by Granma
International) |
