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A Truly Valiant Film Providing an Inside Look at Cuba Today

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Director Antonio Cano is a brave artist, the class of filmmaker who is willing to take risks for the sake of his art. SIETE DIAS, SIETE NOCHES takes a frank and brutal look at one week in Cuba, primarily in Havana, where Cano follows the lives of several women under the kind of stress those of us in this country can only suppose. He does not preach, he does not fall into one side or the other of propaganda: he simply has written and filmed a story that lets us see how people living in Cuba cope.

The film opens with a woman TV news anchor Norma Fernandez reciting the news with a tear in her eye and, unable to continue reporting the lies of the government, she weeps, pulls off her wig, and runs form the studio, pledging a life of silence. At the same time in another section of the country a peasant woman Maria loses her young son in a bizarre situation that could be construed as infanticide. Devastated, she leaves her home to move to the street life in Havana for isolation and survival. In yet another area one elegantly thin and beautiful woman Nieves reluctantly carries out her means of livelihood by killing pigs in a slaughter, all the while dreaming of being a cabaret dancer. Her attitude results in her losing her job and in her mother throwing her out of her meager flat that has been home.

Cano uses these three women as primary focus and works these desperate lives into a fabric that intertwines like a vast mural of decay, lost hope, dog fights, cock fights, sexual encounters, multiple lullabies, and descents into madness, and humor and dancing and, above all, the eternal hope that tomorrow will bring a better life. This is brutal realism, beautifully captured on film by a group of gifted actors, among them Ingrid Gonzalez, Ludmila Alonso-Yodu, Mercedes Morales, Erudye Munuz, Orsiel Gaspar, Alcedes Alvarez to name only a few.

The impact of this film is powerful: it will take multiple viewings to realize all of the intricacies of the plot and the interactions of the characters, young and old, with the government and the culture of Cuba. This is one of those films that deserves a wide audience for those who are concerned about the lives of people who live under suppressive regimes. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 2005"