Strawberry And Chocolate
Groundbreaking and hugely celebrated for numerous reasons, Cuba’s greatest director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s (Memories Of Underdevelopment) and his then protégé, now tour de force director in his own right, Juan Carlos Tabio’s (So Far Away, Guantanamera) Strawberry And Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) was the first Cuban film ever to receive an Academy Award nomination, thanks to its revelatory plot, masterful direction and phenomenally crafted performances.
Strawberry And Chocolate will be released on DVD courtesy of Mr Bongo Films on 16 March 2009.
Diego, a cultivated, apolitical, sceptical young artist living in Havana initiates a friendship with fiercely communist homophobe David with the intention of seducing him. David, knowing this, allows the relationship to build so he can spy on a person he sees as aberrant and dangerous to the communist cause.
Despite their conflicting sexualities and political ideologies the two slowly build a relationship out of their differences, proving that camaraderie and friendship can overcome the most divisive superficialities.
An exploration into the seduction of the mind, Strawberry And Chocolate shows how politics can shape lives, opinions and relationships. Hugely controversial in Cuba even now, the film was the first to feature a gay man as the hero while openly criticising the Government and its widespread intolerance.
It was this picture that started the dialogue that has only last year allowed Brokeback Mountain to be shown in Havana.
Charming, nuanced, groundbreaking and thought provoking, Strawberry And Chocolate is a clear-cut declaration that even in spite of politics, love for your fellow man will always triumph if allowed to.