Watch trailer
Director Patricia Ramos sets this film, her second feature and also written by her, in 2016 Havana. It was a time when Cuba featured regularly in the international media with Obama’s visit, a Chanel fashion show and the historic Rolling Stones concert. This film is not about that historical concert, rather that moment. Middle-aged Rita navigates troublesome relationships with her teenage son who wants to leave Cuba, her aging mother, her married lover, and her lifelong friend who is ill. On the eve of the concert, Rita she takes decisions that begin to give her some independence, as she hopes that something interesting is about to happen.
Described in the Cuban press as 'a film that seems simple, but in the end is also a treatise on what has gone and what has been lost, about the unbreakable will to cling to certain values, on the part of people who stay in their place, who are not going anywhere, animated by the crazy idea that they may find, very close to their home, what they have always been looking for.'
PLUS SHORT: Blue Pandora / Pandora Azul | Alan Gonzalez |2023, Cuba, ICAIC- Crisálida Producciones | 13m|18
Compelling award-winning fictional short. The white youth Roy regularly shows up at the doorstep of Pandora, a middle-aged Black transgender woman, in an attempt to convince her of how much he’s in love with her. She wants to stay out of trouble, and is reluctant because of past experiences with men. An interaction that transcends itself in a subtle yet poignant way, in which thoughts not spoken live in the smallest gesture or the exchange of a glance. The film delves into the complexities of love, self-acceptance, and the weight of societal judgment.
Screen Cuba: Films to Change the World is a collaborative project of the charity Music Fund for Cuba, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, the Cuban Embassy in the UK and the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).
Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.