The Habana
“Fidel” a reunion with the past
By Jenny Alvarez
Photo Courtesy
“Fidel” provides a unique view of Cuba’s controversial and most polarizing leader. In 1968, Castro took filmmaker and activist Saul Landau on a week-long jeep ride through the eastern mountains. There, he plays baseball with a group of peasants, visits his pre-school and trades jokes with a 98-year old man. Fidel also listens to the people’s concerns about food distribution, bad roads and transportation. Landau captures Cuba’s revolutionary chief early in the morning in his tent. The camera zooms in on his dirty and delicate fingernails holding his trademark cigar while he tells a story of Símon Bolivar and offers tactical advice to guerrilla warriors throughout the Third World.
It has spectacular photography and editing with hot Cuban music provide the cinematic aesthetics that give this film beautiful form to accompany its exciting content. This film feels more like a series of toasts at a testimonial dinner than a documentary. All the historical context varies with some concepts such as imperialism has no moral standing to complain of human rights violations. Dubbing is bad since only hear the English version and not clearly heard the Spanish version so as a viewer you have to figure out if Fidel is saying all the words said in the English dubbing.
