Diverse pictures flavor lineup at Havana film fest

HAVANA (Hollywood Reporter) - The cinematic paella on offer at movie houses throughout this buoyantly dilapidated sprawl of a Latin city is peppered with several nonregional films and even a pinch of top-shelf Hollywood ingredients.

Havana's Latin American film festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary with its usual Spanish stew of a programing menu, but gringo filmmakers and festgoers are also in ample evidence.

Argentine helmer Pablo Trapero's female-prison drama "Leonera" opened the festival six days ago, and the 11-day fest features mostly regionally produced films among its 114 competing entries, including several Cuban pics. Contributions from further flung locales include pics from Russia, Africa, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway.

Canadian director Atom Egoyan's politically tinged family drama "Adoration" was screened Saturday, and the French-Brazilian soccer drama "Linha de Passe," co-directed by "Motorcycle Diaries" helmer Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, is another high-profile fest entry. Carlo Gabriel Nero's politically driven entry "The Fever," starring his mother -- Vanessa Redgrave -- is a U.S.-U.K. co-production.

Fest president Alfredo Guerrero said it was "unusual" that such a long-running festival was dominated by modestly budgeted productions, though he added that many also were "really outstanding."

Dramas and documentaries are most prevalent on its daily programs, but the festival also features musicals, horror films and even several American experimental films from the 1960s.

Other special screenings include a Mike Leigh retrospective featuring the British director's best-known pics, like 1990's "Life Is Sweet," and earlier fare like "Bleak Moments" (1971). Brazilian helmer Fernando Meirelles' latest film, the Julianne Moore starrer "Blindness," also was shown.

"I think the reason my films travel is because they are about people and life, and I presume that's why they resonate with the Cubans," said Leigh, whose current comedy-drama "Happy-Go-Lucky" also is on the fest program.

Leigh, who makes a point of keeping Hollywood at arm's length in his own career, said he believes the prospect of restored relations with the U.S. film community poses some peril for Cuban filmmakers and perhaps the Havana fest.

"It would be disaster if they become in any sense sullied by Hollywood," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I've been to some festivals where they genuflect to Hollywood, and I find that unhealthy."

It's been several years since American actors have participated in the Havana fest, following a tightening of travel restrictions under the Bush administration.

At the current edition, Puerto Rican-born Benicio Del Toro was on hand to introduce weekend screenings of Steven Soderbergh's two-part political epic "Che," which casts the actor in the iconic title role. Sunday's showing of "Che" in the 5,000-seat Teatro Karl Marx was packed with lay festgoers along with a mostly Latin industry crowd.

But even screenings of low-budget regional fare are generally quite full. Organizers, who include the Cuban film institute ICAIC, estimate overall fest attendance in the hundreds of thousands.

Many local residents and even Cubans from outside the city take vacation time to enjoy the festival and its screenings at theaters throughout Havana. Cost is minimal to attend individual screenings, and films are shown at published showtimes.

Some of the fest venues are a bit down at the heels, but the enthusiasm for the films on display at the cinemas is consistently top-notch.

There are those nonplussed by the dramas and documentaries on offer, such as a 20-something taxi driver who explained his lack of interest in attending the festival.

"I like films with action," he told a reporter in passable English. "But when they talk, talk, talk, talk, talk? Uh, no

..."

Moviegoers sharing such tastes have no problem getting their fill as the majority of films playing at Havana's cinemas are generally unauthorized copies of the most commercial Hollywood releases. But Cuba also has a proud cinematic history, an internationally recognized film school visited by Soderbergh, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, and a crop of young filmmakers like Pavel Giroud, whose gangster thriller "Omerta" is in the festival lineup.

Giroud's period youth drama "La edad de la peseta" copped art direction and cinematography kudos -- among the fest's Coral awards -- at 2006's Habana Film Festival.

"The highest value of this festival is its programing -- it's very diverse," Giroud said. "But it's also very popular. We don't have many things to do here, and it's very cheap. And it's air-conditioned."

The festival continues through Friday.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter