Echoes of the Festival of New Latin American Cinema
• World preview of 7 Days in Havana

Mireya Castañeda

HAVANA has an unequaled attraction. It is magical and real. A place of encounters and separations. A space with phantoms, soul and five centuries of memory. A city sung about, painted, described, filmed. A legend.

Cuban film has attempted to capture its enchantment. Countless national directors have filmed it: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Memories of Underdevelopment and Strawberry and Chocolate); Fernando Pérez (Suite Habana, Madagascar, La vida es silbar); Humberto Solás (El siglo de las luces, Cecilia, Barrio Cuba, Un hombre de éxito); Gerardo Chijona (Un paraíso bajo las estrellas and Perfecto amor equivocado); Juan Carlos Tabío (Se permuta and Plaff), to cite but a few.

Now seven outstanding international directors, bewitched by the City of Columns, as Alejo Carpentier called it), have sought its face and selected it as the undisputed protagonist of 7 días en La Habana.

Since shooting began last March, expectations have been high. Unsurprisingly. A film comprising seven brief stories, corresponding to each day of the week, directed by Argentine Pablo Trapero, Palestinian Elia Suleiman, Spaniard Julio Medem, Argentine-Frenchman Gaspar Noé, Cuban Juan Carlos Tabío and Frenchman Laurent Cantet, and completed in his debut as a director, by the winner of many awards – an Oscar included – of Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro.

The producers, Full House and Morena Films, gracefully decided to screen the preview of the film during the 33rd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (Last December 1 through 11), out of respect for the theme, and announced during a press conference that 7 días en La Habana was pre-sold to more than 40 countries at the last Cannes Festival.

The reasons? Outstanding directors, actors (Cuban and foreign); the plot, to an extent interweaving each story; and principally, because of Havana, a city that they perceive as special and full of energy.

The film has a special screening at the Chapin movie theater for the Festival’s accredited media, with the presence of the producers and directors Del Toro, Cantet y Tabío, who later took part in a press conference in the Hotel Nacional’s Taganana room.

While the material given to the press emphasizes that the film comprises "seven looks at the reality of current Cuban society," opinions diverged, given that these looks do not cover all sectors and, despite talk of moving away from folklore, the film doesn’t achieve that, or is it seeking it?

What it does have is the value of the particular perception of each director. With his aesthetics, codes, narrative form, sensibility, seasoned with points in common, almost always characters who move from one story to another, through the city’s emblematic locations so as to create a feeling of dramatic unity.

For his first work behind the cameras, Del Toro filmed El Yuma, for Monday, with U.S. actor Josh Hutcherson in the leading role, alongside major Cuban actors, including Vladimir Cruz ( David in Strawberry and Chocolate), Daisy Granados (Retrato de Teresa) and Laura de la Uz (Hello Hemingway).

Benicio del Toro described his experience in making the film as "fantastic and unforgettable" and said that it motivated him to return to directing in the future.

Argentine Pablo Trapero (Mundo grúa, Carancho) took on Tuesday, which he called Jam Session, with two notable artists in the central roles, the great Serbian director Emir Kusturica and Cuban trumpeter Alexander Abreu. Meanwhile, Wednesday, Diary of a Beginner, is directed and acted (without saying a word) by Palestinian Elia Suleiman.

His story followed by La tentación de Cecilia, by Spaniard Julio Medem, who contributes the passionate note of a love triangle, for which he selected German-Spaniard Daniel Brühl and Cuban singer Melvis Santa, and Friday is in the hands of Gaspar Noé and El rito, somber and even more sordid than others.

Cuban Juan Carlos Tabío constructs Saturday, titled Dulce amargo. This is the best achieved story, with the most dramatic quality, and is in consonance with this "look at the reality of current Cuban society." He called on his two favorite actors, Mirta Ibarra and Jorge Perugorría for the central roles and, as usual, they regale us with excellent performances.

Frenchman Cantet filmed La Fuente for Sunday, likewise with a lot of folklore, but with affection for the city and its inhabitants, as he expressed in the press conference. "I believe that the pleasure we all felt in making the film, the will that we had to finish it, is something which can be felt when we see it."

As Perugorría affirmed, 7 días en La Habana, filmed on the island by directors of such quality, is an opportunity for Cuban cinema.

Alejo Carpentier, a Havanan of pure stock, affirmed in his book The City of Columns that, in addition to the variegation of its architectural styles, "Havana streets are a perennial spectacle: theater, caricature, drama, comedy… But in them there is living material, humanity, contrasts, which can delight any observer."