A fascinating piece on television today, courtesy of the BBC World News. A brief telling of the present-day state of Cuban cinema, as told through the story of a movie now in production called Juan of the Dead. In the movie the island is invaded by aliens, but the government is inept to do anything about it, claiming the crisis has been manufactured by dissidents, If you think it's a metaphor on many levels, of course you are right.
It's not only Cuban movies that do a great job of (subtly) poking fun at government, and by extension, taking a genuine stab at the populace itself. One of the songs made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club has a similar theme. In the song entitled El Cuarto de Tula, a room catches fire by candle, presumably because of a lack of electricity. While the people are begging for the fire department to show up, they themselves seem a loss to intervene as they encircle the neighborhood. And, the song is long and repetitious, giving the listener the sense that this is not a situation that will be resolved quickly -- and probably happens over and over again. Both the government and the people to blame for a common situation that ultimately, no one knows how to solve.
We Cubans really, really are good at self depricating humor.
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