by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Filmed in the US but acted in Spanish, El Super is a warmhearted spin on the plight of Cuban exiles in old, cold New York. The coldness is not only figurative but literal: the refugees arrive in the Big Apple in the dead of winter, and hole up in a barely heated basement apartment. "El Super" is lonely building superintendent Reymundo Hidalgo-Gato. Himself a Cuban expatriate of ten years' standing, Hidalgo-Gato feels totally out of place in New York, yet he has very little in common with his newly arrived countrymen. Hidalgo-Gato's appealing star turn is matched by the sprightly performance of leading lady Elizabeth Pena.
characteristics
- Fish Out Of Water
- Survival
- Survivor
- School
- Slice-of-life
- Struggle
- Superintendent
- Winter
- Refugee
- Loneliness
- Exile
- Cuba
- Homesick
- Humor
- Alienation
