San Francisco International Film Festival: The Sugar Curtain May 8, 2007

Born in Chile in 1971, Camila Guzmán Urzúa was the daughter of a guerrilla filmmaker, Patricio Guzmán, who would soon become one of the most notorious figures in Latin American cinema. Forced to leave her native country at the age of two by the bloody coup, the family was welcomed in revolutionary Cuba. Camila grew up in Cuba until she left in 1990 to join her father in Paris. Now she has fashioned an eloquent lament of lost youth, with its uninhibited expressions of joy and its infinite possibilities. During her days spent in Cuba, revolutions brewed all over the world. The ideals of the martyrs of the Cuban revolution, such as Antonio Maceo, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara, seemed on the verge of being fulfilled. "We were building a new society, a just society," she says. "We would be astronauts, doctors, engineers, painters." But slowly, things went wrong. Support from the Soviet bloc evaporated, and the criminal U.S. blockade became more stringent. Guzmán Urzúa interviews childhood friends who are now severely disillusioned. Many left Cuba and moved to Europe. "People have become materialistic," they lament. The shortcomings of the Revolution, irrelevant to the children growing up in its midst, now loom large in their eyes. In an emotionally charged segment, Guzmán Urzúa interviews her mother who, in contrast to those who contemplated leaving, chose to stay in Cuba despite the hardships. Guzmán Urzúa holds the Cuban Revolution to a high standard: that it live up to the ideals of her youth. One should expect nothing less. No doubt Maceo, Camilo and Che expected the same.

—Miguel Pendás

In Spanish with English subtitles. Presented in association with the French Cultural Services, Consulate General of France and the French-American Cultural Foundation in San Francisco.

Official Website: http://fest07.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=105