It’s official. ¨Jirafas¨ ( Giraffes), directed by Cuban filmmaker Enrique Alvarez, is part of the national representation in competition for Coral prizes in the upcoming International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, to be held in Havana during the first days of December. It was produced by KA Productions, Galaxia 311, Largasluces Productions and Open Roads Media, and it is one of those paradigmatic movies of a cinema generated outside the official institutions of Cuban film industry. Giraffes, recognized as “intimate film which is developed mostly in one location and represents perhaps the most progressive and realistic segment of recent cinema generated in Cuba,” talks about the need of three young characters, two women and a man, determined to find a decent survival, and reaching a consensus of understanding and tolerance in the midst of litigation to take possession of a house where the three protagonists are forced to live. According to the cinematic website Noticine, Giraffes radicalizes Enrique Alvarez´s shooting style, who is known by his previous films which also had an intimate slant, and on couples in crisis, such as ¨La Ola¨, ¨Miradas¨, and ¨ Marina.¨ The website claims that this new feature film means “a triumph of Cuban cinema in the sense that creative freedom can be spread outside its borders. Let us hope that Enrique Alvarez to continue furthering the boundaries of his cinema and his reflective look on the current state of things. That critic movie, which has had in the past worthy representatives of Cuban cinema, was already missed. ” When he talks about the ” worthy representatives of Cuban cinema in the past,” referring to a tradition of critic cinema, the chronicler was thinking maybe in films like ¨Hasta cierto punto¨, ¨Se permuta¨, and in particular of ¨Amor vertical¨ or ¨Entre ciclones¨, alluding likewise, with more or less depth, a very deep housing crisis , hot topic for a metropolis threatened by the increasing deterioration of its buildings and the very slow pace in building new homes. Giraffes fully deals this matter, since it refers to a young couple, Lia and Manuel, who live in an empty house in Centro Habana, but soon appears Tania, the niece of the late owner, claiming her rights on the house. The three of them will have to resign themselves to the hard cohabitation, while being threatened with eviction. The struggle for the place ends making them closer. One of the u ndisputed novelties of the film comes from the fact that its three characters are reduced to confinement, and therefore ninety percent of the plot, approximately, occurs indoors. The film was shot mostly in the director’s house, precisely in Centro Habana, and they worked with a camera that can shoot in high definition and allows following the characters in their domestic entrenchments. It should be noted that, like most of young Cuban cinema, Giraffes was conducted in cooperative regime, from a group of actors and technicians who worked for free hoping to achieve remuneration with the outcome.
The tough photography direction, because of the difficulty of movement in no very wide spaces, was made by Colombian Nicolás Ordoñez . According to Enrique Alvarez “when the protagonist went walking down the street, people hardly realized we were filming a movie, everybody was looking at a very small and easy-to-handle photo camera, which you can carry anywhere, and so you can be very close to the actors, can work in confined spaces and that gives large possibilities to experiment with the language and differently deal with screenwriting “.
The film was a real performing challenge for the three young and leading actors, constantly harassed by a nosy and inquisitive camera . Claudia Muñiz co-wrote the screenplay with the director, as in the previous movie Marina, and she plays Lia, a strong and assertive woman with a sense of survival very practically oriented. Yasmani Guerrero faces a hedonistic half vulgar character that all the time requires an extra of the young actor. Olivia Manrufo performs, with singular finesse and disconcerting composure, the third character.
The same creative team of Giraffes soon shot ¨Venecia¨ (Venice), also written by Claudia Muñiz, which tells the story of Monica, Violeta and Mayelín, workers of a state hairdressing salon, who decide to accompany one of them to buy a dress on payday. Thus, a journey of unexpected events began, which leads them to a night of quite unique adventures. At dawn, they have a common dream of opening a beauty salon which they will name Venice. But this feature film is far from its encounter with the public. Earlier, in a few days, you should watch Giraffes.
