Habana Blues (2005)

Directed by

Benito Zambrano

Genre

drama film, musical film

Country

Cuba, France, Spain

Runtime

1h 50m

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 37 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two young musicians in Havana face a tough choice when a Spanish record label offers them a shot at fame. One wants to stay true to his Cuban roots while the other sees it as a way out of poverty. Their friendship strains under the pressure of leaving home behind.

bittersweetcontemplativeearthygrungysoulfulfrustratingvisceral

What happens

Havana Blues (Habana Blues) is a 2005 Spanish-Cuban film directed and co-written by Benito Zambrano which tells the story of two young musicians in Cuba. The film revolves around their music and contains criticism of problems in Cuba such as poverty and electricity outages. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The two musicians, Ruy and Tito (Yoel and San Martín), whose music is a mix of traditional Cuban music and more modern music such as rap, get a chance at an international breakthrough through a Spanish record company, but they would have to change their Cuba-themed lyrics to cater to an international audience. Ruy considers this a betrayal of his country and his art, whereas Tito recognizes the financial necessity of it. At the same time, Ruy is dealing with the fact that his children and their mother Caridad (Sierra) are leaving for the United States. Art versus commerce, nationalism versus globalism, and communism versus capitalism are some of the themes of the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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