Ibero-American Jewels

Che: Memories of a Secret Year

Director:  Margarita Hernández

This historical documentary looks at little-known events in the life of Argentinean guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara, during the period when he mysteriously disappeared from public view in 1965. The story is narrated by three former Cuban secret agents who spent that year in hiding with the revolutionary leader. The film details, for the first time, how he adopted a false identity and transformed his face to avoid surveillance by U.S. and Soviet intelligence services. This enabled him to hide first in Tanzania and then in Prague while he waited for the Cuban government to prepare his next destination. This is the first feature-length film from Cuban-born filmmaker Margarita Hernández, who has lived in Brazil since the 1990s (see the article on page 172). She has also directed four short documentaries and is the program director for the Ceará Film Festival.

Sergio & Serguéi

Director: Ernesto Daranas

This Cuban comedy is based on a real-life story. It is set during the so-called Special Period, an economic crisis that battered Cuba after the Soviet Union collapsed. The work takes a humorous and absurdist look at the vicissitudes of the lives of Cubans trying to survive that period. As odd as it might seem, the action switches between Havana and outer space, which is certainly unusual in a Latin American film. This is Ernesto Daranas’s most ambitious project. The film won the Audience Award for Best Central American and Caribbean Picture at the Panama International Film Festival 2018.

The Flower of Life

Directors: Claudia Abend and Adriana Loeff

Although it is a study of the journey of aging, this Uruguayan documentary zeroes in on the lives of Aldo and Gabriella, a couple in crisis after fifty years of marriage. Whatever once united them has faded and they begin to question why they are still together. The movie reflects on falling in and out of love and on the challenges of aging. The film, which garnered many international awards, is the second work co-directed by filmmakers Claudia Abend and Adriana Loeff. The first was the documentary Hit (2008), which drew the largest audiences for a local film in Uruguay in 2008.