The presence of Cuban works in international cinema festivals is not so common, perhaps because the film industry depression. These days, a Cuban short, Alejandrito y el Cuco, by filmmaker Alex Medina, has crept into first level festivals, including one of class A, the International Film Festival in Warsaw, which was chosen to participate in the Short Film Competition.
It was also selected to participate in the Official Competition of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, where not only will be vying for the Grand Prize for Best Short Film, as the festival is one of the works of qualification for the Oscar Academy Awards . It is valid to clarify that the work was chosen among five thousand sent from over sixty countries.
It was also chosen in the Independent Short Film Festival Dragon Con, which is part of the Dragon Con, based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; This convention brings together lots of fans of science fiction, fantasy, comics and other elements of this culture. The festival is a platform that serves filmmakers to interact and become known in the world of cinema.
What is special about this film? Alejandrito y el Cuco plays with the fear of children to the creatures of the night, so you desecrated in Monsters Inc. and existing in the imagination of the kids. The bogeyman, the bogeyman are some of many names given to these characters that come from the social imaginary and urban legends in order to instill fear into the most disobedient kids. With a witch as a teacher, not in a literal sense, Alejandrito suffers predisposition of this “second mother” which does not tolerate the mischievous boy at times reminiscent of the worst Bart Simpson.
From the first scene you can see in the short how Medina, the director, plays with certain codes of horror films and in turn used to give very effective lurches from one genre to another, mixing horror, suspense and comedy. If we call to mind, there are few films that end well stops when mixing humor with the scares Scream style; the remake of Fright Night is an example of how this game of genres does not always end well.
In turn, the director did not want to leave it as a simple sketch and the work lasted a little more than the script could give to make it a cinematic exercise that works pretty well, because let’s face it, there are fifteen minutes in length short when you suffer like in a three hour Soviet drama. In Alejandrito … the rhythm goes at a great pace and you enjoy fifteen minutes without any effort.
Another advantage is the good work with children. A classroom of twenty kids is not easy to handle, and yet everything flows with incredible ease. Beyond the good choice of the protagonist and his two friends, the performance of boys is awesome, and that’s very difficult to get.
The short leaves us some interesting questions. The first by repeated is no less real, and revolves around education and lousy teachers sometimes make students suffer at whim and predispose them completely to the education system. The other is about the fears that adults have on children; while growing up we overcome our fear of the dark and the bestiary that we developed in our imagination, some of those fears leave scars? Or are memories needed, in addition to functioning as stimulants, enriched our childhood?
Finally, in the scene where they burn the photos, Medina brings to the table a terrible truth: the blind confidence of children in the words of adults. A lie is enough to trigger a series of fears and change the mindset of Alejandrito
With a witch as a teacher, not in a literal sense, Alejandrito suffers predisposition of this “second mother” which does not tolerate the mischievous boy at times reminiscent of the worst Bart Simpson/ Photo courtesy of the interviewee
