Strawberry and Chocolate

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Strawberry and Chocolate
Fresa y chocolate
Fresa y Chocolate (US cover).jpg
Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Juan Carlos Tabío
Produced by Camilo Vives
Frank Cabrera
Georgina Balzaretti
Written by Story:
Senel Paz
Screenplay:
Senel Paz
Starring Jorge Perugorría
Vladimir Cruz
Mirta Ibarra
Francisco Gattorno
Distributed by Miramax Films (USA)
Release dates
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  • 1994 (1994)
Running time
108 minutes
Country Cuba
Mexico
Language Spanish

Strawberry and Chocolate (Spanish: Fresa y chocolate) is an internationally co-produced film, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, based on the short story "The Wolf, The Forest and the New Man" (in Spanish, El Lobo, el bosque y el hombre nuevo) written by Senel Paz in 1990. Senel Paz also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Plot

The story takes place in Havana, Cuba in 1979. David (Vladimir Cruz) is a university student who meets Diego (Jorge Perugorría), a gay artist unhappy with the Castro regime's attitude toward the LGBT community as well as the censored conceptualization of culture. David's homophobic classmate, Miguel (Francisco Gattorno), plans to use David to spy on Diego, a person whom they see as aberrant and dangerous to the Communist cause; Diego, for his part, initiates the friendship with sexual intentions.

Cast

Reception

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert comments that "nothing unfolds as we expect. Strawberry and Chocolate is not a movie about the seduction of a body, but about the seduction of a mind. It is more interested in politics than sex — unless you count Sexual Politics, since to be homosexual in Cuba is to make an anti-authoritarian statement whether you intend it or not."[1]

The title refers to a comment made by Diego that proved immediately to David that Diego was gay when, at Havana's Coppelia (ice cream parlor), he chose strawberry ice cream even though chocolate (vastly more popular) was available.

Awards and nominations

Won

1995
1994
1993
  • Havana Film Festival:[3] Grand Coral—First Prize, Audience Award, FIPRESCI Prize, OCIC Award, ARCI-NOVA Award, and the categories of Best Direction, Best Actor (Perugorría), Best Actress (Luisina Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Ibarra), and Best Screenplay.

Nominated

See also

References

  1. Ebert, Roger. "Strawberry and Chocolate" (review), Chicago Sun-Times, February 10, 1995. Retrieved October 14, 2006.
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  3. http://www.habanafilmfestival.com/
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External links