El telón de azúcar is the portrait of that generation of Cubans who were educated when the country's economy was flourishing and the power of the revolution was still tangible. Childhood memories from the 1970s are almost paradisiacal: a peaceful everyday life, solidarity among neighbors and friends, children's games, colorful schoolyards, group experience in the Pioneers, life is a piece of cake.
Upon entering adulthood, not only was the childhood perspective lost, but also the security of the eastern European allies of the country. The economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union pointed their way as they left their parents' homes. When at the end of the film the names of the former classmates are read out, followed by their current whereabouts, a cartography of the world is created in which Cuba is no more than a blank space in the memory. Seldom does one experience so strongly the cinematic formal elements that reality has in store. El telón de azúcar is a collective autobiography, marked by an unusual relationship between the political and the personal. The 35-year-old filmmaker turns her attention back to her childhood and looks back at the present from there. In doing so, she shows how world politics accelerated the process of growing up for a whole generation.
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
Production: Paraiso Production Diffusion, Paris; Luz Films, Paris; TVE
Screenplay, Cinematographer: Camila Guzmán Urzúa
Editors: Claudio Martinez, Camila Guzmán Urzúa
Format: 35mm, Color
Running time: 82 minutes
Language: Spanish
