Film Review: Epicentro

 

The recent talk about free speech, control and who’s lying about what that has recently taken over American airwaves fits right in with filmmaker Hubert Sauper’s impressionistic, colorful and altogether delightful “Epicentro,” which takes the history of Cuba as its subject.

Sauper explores the island’s outside influences (i.e., colonialism) and internal politics, but concentrates on the attitudes of present-day Havana residents. Our guides are two young girls – Leonelis Arango Salas and Annielys Pellaclito Zaldivar – who tell us they’re making a film about “foreign influence and slavery and people in the street.”

Cuba – perhaps best known to gringos as “America’s playground” – has had to contend with outside colonial powers since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, when he declared it Spanish territory. Immediate attempts to enslave the indigenous population and the later importation of black slaves from Africa led to several failed rebellions, but in the late 19th century the U.S. decided it wanted influence in the territory. 

The sinking by Spain of the American battleship USS Maine led to war and the resulting American colonization of the island, which soon sprouted hotels, casinos and other tourist amenities. Popular films and magazines featured pictures of sandy beaches and those great old convertibles of the ‘50s and ‘60s cruising down the street.

What the tourist press didn’t cover was the now-infamous American prison at Guantánamo Bay, which needs no explanation to Americans.

This sort of dichotomy – the beauty and delight of island life for vacationers in contrast to the grimness of a prison – led Sauper to reflect on truth in life as well as truth in the arts like cinema. But this is no stuffy historical treatise – Sauper is careful to show the delight, joy and spontaneity of the Cubans, most especially the children.

It’a a bit of a roller-coaster ride, taking us down one route only to say “no, that’s not it” and take another way. But it’s engaging all the way – especially  those irrepressible kids, who at one point get Sauper to pretend to a luxury hotel that they are his children, so they can use the pool on the hotel roof.

Oona Chaplin (Charlie’s granddaughter) even shows up, acting with one of the girls, singing a song and attending a screening of a Chaplin film, to the delight of the children.

“Epicentro” is a rarity: a real documentary that exposes the bad (and the fake) while not ignoring the real joy of life in Cuba.