"Habana Eva" is playing at Los Angeles Film Festival

Prakriti Maduro stars in "Habana Eva," screening as part of the "International Spotlight: Cuba" series at the Los Angeles Film Festival. (Los Angeles Film Festival)

By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times

June 23, 2011

In the blithe romantic comedy "Habana Eva," playing Friday and Saturday at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the frisky, young Cuban heroine faces several thorny choices.

Should she stand by her loyal-but-lethargic Cuban boyfriend, or bed down with a rich, dashing Venezuelan photographer? Stick with her seamstress job in a state-run factory, or take the plunge into entrepreneurial capitalism by becoming a fashion designer? Hold fast to the old revolutionary ideals, or embrace the new spirit of globalization that's encroaching on Cuba like the waves pounding the Malecon sea wall?

Her disarming implied response to some of these dilemmas — "Well, why not both?" — won't satisfy Marxist intellectuals or haters of Fidel Castro. But it expresses a certain ambivalent affection toward Cuba's past, as well as a tentative hopefulness about its post-Castro future, that can be glimpsed to varying degrees in all four films in the festival's "International Spotlight: Cuba" series.

Although many Americans still see Cuba through the lens of Cold War politics, these films depict a country in the midst of political and cultural soul-searching, in ways that don't adhere to any one party line.

"I'm hoping that this kind of collection of films will help beat down some of that monolithic way of looking at things," said David Ansen, the festival's artistic director, who scouted for films at last winter's Havana Film Festival with an L.A. delegation that included director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal ("The Hurt Locker").

Partly due to long-standing trade restrictions between the two countries, Ansen said, Cuban films rarely are shown in the United States, apart from festivals. But a recent easing by the Obama administration of rules governing U.S.-Cuba cultural exchanges could change that in coming years.



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