- dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Juan Carlos Tabío
- Year. 1993
- country. Cuba
- run-time. 108 mins
- rating. 18
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors 19:30 - Film 20:00
Our Latin American Cinema #QueerLatino season continues with:
STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE (Fresa y Chocolate)
This classic Cuban film tells the story of a friendship between a young student (member of the Communist Party), and a gay political activist, who is critical of the government's censorship.
"Watching his funny and likeable Havana-set comedy is like chancing upon some undiscovered early gem by Godard or Woody Allen, and yet it has a worldliness and drollery that is all its own. At the time, Strawberry and Chocolate was notable for being the first Cuban film with an overtly gay character, but the ideas it raises about sexualities both gay and straight seem to me just as relevant and fresh right now.
... Alea's movies have a loose, free-wheeling swing to them, an improvised "jazz solo" feel that looks easy but really isn't. There are very few directors who can contrive long scenes in which nothing happens but talk. And conversation is much of what this film is about: idealistic, studenty conversation but intelligent and high-minded conversation nonetheless: about books, art, music, everything. " P. Bradshaw. The Guardian.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
“A clear call for tolerance, deftly executed by a director for whom the personal and the political were indivisible”
“It’s a clear-eyed critique of the revolution’s treatment of gay Cubans and, as such, it’s a brave and important piece of film-making”
“Watching his funny and likeable Havana-set comedy is like chancing upon some undiscovered early gem by Godard or Woody Allen, and yet it has a worldliness and drollery that is all its own”