If
there is one country that has less faith in the Communist Party than China, it
would have to be Cuba. They have all of the social inequities associated with
China’s extreme income disparity, but the exploitation is seemingly reserved exclusively
for foreign tourists. Of course, it is not like Cubans haven’t had revolutionary
theory explained to them. For decades, they have endured Fidel Castro’s interminable
speeches. Those diatribes produced the hollow slogan adopted as the ironic title
of Olatz López Garmendia’s revealing documentary Patria o Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland or Death (trailer here), executive produced by Julian Schnabel, which
premieres this coming Monday on HBO.
Strictly
speaking, Garmendia (second wife of Schnabel, who directed her in Before Night Falls) takes the
observational approach, observing many average Havanans in their homes and
listening to their complaints. However, her desperately poor subjects have so
much to say and their situations are so precarious, the film never feels like a
Wisemanesque fly-on-the-wall experience. Very few of them even bothers talking
about freedom anymore. That is long gone. Their thoughts are solely concerned with
day-to-day, hour-to-hour survival.
We
meet Mercedes, whose family risks their lives every day just by living in their
(literally) crumbling building. They know it is only a matter of time before it
collapses (her son was already hospitalized by a floor cave-in), but they have
no other place to go. A thirty-eight-year-old street vendor would understand.
He says he feels like a teenager because he still lives with his parents, but
there is no chance he could find or afford his own apartment given his
circumstances.
Occasionally,
some Havanans express frustration with the lack of intellectual and artistic
freedom, such as Yoani Sanchez and Renaldo Escobar, dissident bloggers in a
country that forbids the internet. However, for average Cubans, it is more a
matter of being denied one of the most convenient tools of the Twenty-First
Century.
Anyone
who stills thinks Obama’s overtures to the Castro regime will materially
improve their lot should be quickly disabused by the work of Garmendia and her
crew, particularly cinematographer Claudio Fuentes Madan, who is seen getting
arrested (violently) for protesting on the day of Obama’s state visit. He also
does nice work behind the camera, evocatively framing each interviewee and their
[barely]-living spaces. Through his lens, we get a visceral sense of just how
oppressive life in Cuba really is—for all but the Party pinnacle of privilege.
Patria o Muerte does not
white-wash or sugar coat any of its subjects’ reality. Yet, it is not a
spirit-crushing viewing experience, in part due to its eclectic but very upbeat
Cuban soundtrack (even including old school Benny More). It just serves up one
harsh dose of truth after another, but it washes it down with some rich Afro-Cuban
derived or inspired rhythms. In fact, there is an elusive, haunted and decrepit
beauty to the city and its people that comes out clearly in every frame of the one-hour
film. Very highly recommended, Patria o
Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland or Death debuts this coming Monday (11/28) and
hits HBO On Demand the next day.