Tomas Piard is the Cuban filmmaker who holds more titles with his work . Since breaking into the Cuban audiovisual scene in the 1970s he has not ceased to amaze with his imaginative and diverse films, including those related to fantasy and catastrophe.
He is one of the most consistent, persistent and prolific of our filmmakers and leaving behind Los desastres de la guerra (2012) and the stage adaptation Si vas a comer, espera por Virgilio (2013) he is back in the news thanks to his new film that will be released next March. The city is a very human and spiritual drama on current circumstances and conflicts, according to what he told OnCuba, with which he experiences a significant theme, generic and conceptual transition in his career.
Emigration, spirituality, nostalgia, faith, friendship, love and disappointment are some of the topics addressed by the film that by these days is finalizing details of dubbing and soundtrack.
This is a feature film which script has a somewhat circular structure. It consists of three stories, different from each other, which common thread is precisely the current issue of the exodus, migration and the dilemma of leaving, staying and returning. This phenomenon is addressed through the lives of contemporary characters, from different generations and sexes who are exposed to the pain that separations always cause. They are people who leave by religious affairs, for love or career aspirations. The characters of the different stories have nothing to do with each other; they only interact among them once.
Produced by RTV Comercial, in collaboration with the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC by its Spanish acronym), the film features performances in the first story of Luisa María Jiménez, Dania Splinter and Herminia Sánchez. Others actors involved in this work are Patricio Wood, Omar Ali and Hector Hechemendía and the young Martha Salema, Carlos Solar and Aidana Febles. The script is by Piard himself , with whom we talked about this recent production.
Did any specific personal experience on emigration inspire you to make this film?
This film is inspired by my memory and the number of relatives, friends and acquaintances that have left the country. It is based on my history and that of the people who, although I do not know directly, their sad stories have sensitized me.
Why did you choose the title The city to deal about this topic in a feature film?
The city is the summary of our island which currently is in the process of transformation. The film takes place today, is very modern and also about the restoration process of the Cuban spirit. The Cuban has been humanly deteriorated, even if it hurts to say it, I feel that has been psychologically denigrated and in many ways more because the material part has negatively influenced on human beings, their values and spirituality.
Emigration has been a phenomenon that many Cubans have experienced and has been addressed in our media repeatedly. What new features do you propose with this film?
I speak of the religious problem. How hard it was for Catholics living in Cuba a few years ago. Believing in the Virgin of Cobre was a crime, that was the reason by which a girl was expelled from college and now pilgrimages are made to the Virgin and is strolled all along the country as the patroness of Cuba she has always been. The first story is about women, I address very intimate problems like the one concerning faith and what it was resigned to defend religious beliefs at the time. During years you did not live, those older than you experienced things that do not happen today. We had to face many terrible things that today seem wanting to be erased in a stroke. In high school, pre-university and college those who thought differently were discriminated, those who had another ideology and religious beliefs were expelled from the school and in the end you had no choice but to leave the country. There is no even one Cuban family that is complete, at least one member of each has emigrated, they all are unfortunately fractured. To give you my example, recently I met again with a very dear cousin of mine who emigrated in my childhood and I never knew about her. She was about twenty when she left and now I can communicate with her again and she is already eighty. The dialogue between us can not be normal because all those years of absence and silence weigh too much. The film is about that. It also discusses the idea accompanying the new generations of leaving Cuba. Many young people are thinking about how to migrate, they graduate and leave. I have experienced that as a professor in the Faculty of Audiovisual Media (FAMCA by its Spanish acronym). Another interesting edge that the film exposes is the inability to love because of the distance, the loves that have no future and that are truncated due to emigration.
The Capitol under restoration is a recurring location of the film. Does it work as a metaphor to the state of the identity and the contemporary Cuban society?
The current image of the Capitol is also given by a characteristic that is deeply marking this historic moment that procrastination is, as nobody cares about anything. Much of the conflicts of the film are represented in the Capitol which is the symbol of the country and the Republic, as it is now under restoration, representing the Cuba of today that is being gradually restored. The characters are not related to the Capitol, this site serves as one more character and as a sort of parallelism. Semiotics, the meaning of places, is very important to me. Some places in the city talk about us, on how we are and what we want to be.
This film marks a break with your previous work. What did you want to convey as creator this time?
I feared to have changed or diverted my mark due to diversity of the theme in my way of filming, but my staff, who have been with me in my previous films and know my work, told me: “Tomas you’re still being you but with another topic , your style and essence remain. “Since 1993, when Fresa y Chocolate was released, it has been imposed the aesthetics of misery, which prevails in most of our films. In this film if I was going to talk of the city I did not want to refer to its miseries, but quite the opposite. I wanted to show the beautiful city that also exists, then why not also transiting through it instead of the threshing path of crumbling facades? If I’m talking about the restoration of the city why not walking through well preserved buildings and sites? This city that I show is the alternative to the most popular in contemporary audiovisual . This Havana exists and is one of the seven wonders of the modern world cities. There are many outsides in this material highlighting the beauty of the city. It also appears Prado Street, the Central Park with all its surrounding beauty, the Malecon, that line connecting the old city with the new one and works like balcony of the city where we all go. The film is a tribute to the capital of all Cubans from an intimate view. The interiors are not miserable, everything is clean and there are homes of people who have a certain level, both economic and intellectual , but have suffered greatly . My intention was to get away from vulgarity and ugliness, escaping somewhat from the misery of ever.
Authors
Cecilia Crespo,
cecilia
