Film Review: 7 Days in Havana (Edinburgh International Film Festival - Director's Showcase/International Premiere) (France/Spain 2012) (English & Spanish with English Subtitles) (Directors: Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trabero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gasper Noe, Juan Carlos Tabio, Laurent Cantet) Friday 22.06.2012, 18:20, Cineworld Screen Eight, Edinburgh

I had gone to see this as had gone to Havana for a holiday some years back. I have a general interest in Cuba, and since it is not often that films are shot there (although this is the 2nd film shot in Havana released here this year), that when they are, I tend to wish to see them.

Each of the 'directors' were responsible for a day of the film each. The differing days contained differing characters/events, though there was slight overlapping of these.

Within the film there are many places shown which I have a clear memory of, and it was nice to see them being shown in a film. The hotel I stayed in was shown in three of the sections/days of the film, which did make me wonder whether there were financial incentives/deals involved in the making of the film.

Four of the days (and part of one of the one of the other days) in the film focused upon Cuba's relationship with outsiders: how visitors find it to be exotically intoxicating/can be vulnerable to being taken for a ride, and how Cubans can desire to leave, though feel torn about this. Four and a bit days of a 'seven day' film, being focused upon this, felt to be imbalanced to me. Again I wondered whether this was a result of agreements made in relation to getting funding for the film, or whether it is just the result of having outsiders looking at the country. Despite this imbalance of focus, at least it looked at both Cuban's relating to the world as well as the worlds relating to Cuba.

I was intrigued to see that across three of the days, Cuban's differing relating to sexuality, that is not Heterosexual, was reflected upon. This differing relating was also connected to religion. The Afro-Cuban religion where witch-doctors perform rituals (as shown in the film) among other functions, was presented as the more reactionary community, than the communities shown in the other days. Generally speaking, this fits with my understanding of how this is in Cuban society, where sexuality can be far more contentious than it is here.

I had felt that there were stories that worked better than others, though overall I found the film enjoyable. The weakest day, was in my mind the first one by Benicio Del Toro, which I had suspected was his section before this was confirmed in the end credits. I was able to easily identify the sections done by Julio Medem & Gasper Noe, though I'm not sure if this says more about the film or my familiarity with these directors other work.
The section by Julio Medem, although I did enjoy it, it did contain what I reckon to be one of the most ridiculous sex scenes I have ever seen (I found myself laughing at it) and considering the quality of the intimate scenes in his film Sex and Lucia, I found this quite odd.
The section I enjoyed most was the one done by Gasper Noe, which is also the section that concerns the Afro-Cuban Faith and the Rituals performed by Witch Doctors within this. This section contained no dialogue, was beautifully lit and quite hypnotic.

Overall Collective Rating: 07/10.