(1996)
2
Tom Wiener
"Things are never easy for us Cubans," proclaims Gustavo, the young, extremely naïve socialist at the beginning of this story. Whereas Gustavo accepts food rationing, a crumbling infrastructure, and restrictions on free speech as temporary obstacles to a better Cuba, everyone around him can't. His new lover, Yolanda, needs to break away from her restrictive mother and satisfy her yearning for material goods; his father is an embittered widower whose chosen profession of psychiatry isn't a viable career option in Castro's impoverished Cuba; his brother is a rock n roll animal, an endangered species in a socialist country which, as we know from The Buena Vista Social Club, frowns on much more benign forms of pop music as unworthy of serving the aims of the state. Bitter Sugar is not the anti-Castro screed it might have been; it's something better, just a cut below the high standards of Strawberry and Chocolate and Memories of Underdevelopment as sophisticated explorations of the dilemma of Cubans who see the hollowness of the revolution's promises. The filmmakers clearly love the sensuality of the island, even as they despair of the impossible compromises its dead-end political system forces on so many of its citizens. Gustavo and Yolanda are a beautiful pair of lovebirds, and you can't blame director Leon Ichaso for filming them in as many clinches in as many locations as possible, but the film comes dangerously close to supporting too much of its critique of Castro with an impossible dream of love everlasting. When Gustavo's naivete curdles, it's important to recall the number of blasted lives among his small circle of family, friends, and mentors that helped turn his head around.
releases for Bitter Sugar on AllMovie
Bitter Sugar (1996)
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Bitter Sugar
New Yorker Video
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February 27, 2001 |
