Mireya Castañeda

• THE Havana film festival jury was indulgent this year. The Coral Prizes went to the most predictable films. Although they were genuinely the best films at the festival, this has never stopped past juries from making more controversial decisions.

There were 20 feature films in competition this year analyzed by a jury made up of Lucía Murat (Brazil), Arcelia Ramírez (Mexico), Derubín Jácome (Cuba), Juan José Jusid (Argentina) and Pedro Zaratiegui (Spain).

Peruvian director Claudia Llosa’s wonderful film La teta asustada won the First Coral Prize for Fiction "for approaching the issue of violence via a poetic dimension and for showing the rich spiritual heritage of her country with intimate sensitivity."

The movie, which centers on an illness transmitted through the breast milk of women who were raped or mistreated during Peru’s war on terrorism, arrived at the festival having already won Berlinale’s Golden Bear Award and having been selected to represent its country at the 2010 Oscars.

La teta asustada also won the Coral for Artistic Direction (Susana Torres and Patricia Bueno).

The Second Coral for Sebastián Silva’s La Nana (Chile) was also just. It was one of the most watched films at the festival and makes a very astute presentation of the conflicts within Chilean society and within the lead character, brilliantly played by Catalina Saavedra, who won the Coral for the Best Female Actor.

Marcelo Gómes and Karim Aïnouz’s Viajo porque necesito, vuelvo porque te amo (Brazil) won the Third Coral Prize, Best Sound, and the FIPRESCI prize. In a certain way it is a road movie that reveals the harsher side of the Brazilian desert.

The Special Jury Prize, which sometimes leaves a flavor of consolation, as we saw with María Luisa Bemberg’s Yo la peor de todas, and now, although far for this, for Juan José Campanella’s El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina), in which the director combines thriller and melodrama with good results.

The movie was very well received and also won the Coral for Best Direction, Best Male Actor (Ricardo Darín), Best Music (Federico Jusid), and the Popularity Prize (4,655 points).

El traspatio, an exposé of the murder of women in Ciudad Juárez, by one of the best contemporary Mexican directors, Carlos Carrera (El crimen del padre Amaro), was compensated with the Coral for Best Screenplay (Sabine Berman), Best Editing (Oscar Figueroa) and the SIGNIS Award.

The Debut Film competition is one category that should not be overlooked. One could say that promise for the future is to be found in this section, as it takes the pulse of new filmmakers. On this occasion a significant new generation is visible in several countries.

The Debut Film first prize was awarded to Huacho (Chile) by Alejandro Fernández, second place went to Adrián Biniez’s Gigante (Uruguay), Mariana Chenillo’s Cinco días sin Nora (México) took third, El vuelco del cangrejo (Colombia) by Oscar Ruiz Navia won the Special Jury Prize, and Florence Jaugey’s La Yuma received a Special Mention.

Short films also competed at the Havana Film Festival. Iberê Carvalho’s Para pedir perdón (Brazil) won in this category. In the documentary category, prizes were awarded to the following: First Prize went to La pérdida (Argentina) by Enrique Gabriel and Javier Angulo; Second Prize to José Padilla’s Garapa (Brazil); Natalia Almada’s El General (Mexico, U.S.) took home the Third Prize; and David Blaustein’s Fragmentos rebelados (Argentina) won the Special Jury Prize. 31 minutos, la película (Chile) by Pedro Peirano and Alvaro DíazAni won the prize for Best Animated Film.

Benjamín Avila and Marcelo Muller’s Infancia clandestina won the Coral for the Best Unedited Screenplay. The Best Film on Latin America from a Non-Latin American Director went to Andrew Lang’s Hijos de Cuba (UK).
CUBA DISAPPOINTED

Although Cuban filmmaking was represented in all the categories, it was unable to satisfy a jury faced with, speaking of only one aspect, the extremely intense stories narrated in many of the 42 competing films.

So, just one Coral for the island, that for Best Poster, which went to the documentary La Marea, by directors Eloy Ramón Hernández Dubrosky and Liset Vidal de la Cruz, which also received a Special Mention.

There were other special mentions. One in the shorts category for Los minutos, las horas (Brazil, Cuba) by Janaína Marques Ribeiro and the Special Jury Prize for Animated Film for 20 años by Bárbaro Joel Ortiz. Alejandro Brugués’s Sobreviviendo won a Special Mention in the unedited screenplay category. The Cuban public supported Juan Carlos Cremata’s El premio flaco, which took second place in popularity with 4,500 points.

After presenting the Coral prizes, Alfredo Guevara, president and founder of the festival, stated in his closing statement that the competition "demonstrates, in its mere existence, the possibility of and the obligation to articulate justice, a look directed toward it, and beauty…an artist’s duty is to fill the world with justice. Without justice, beauty is impossible to fulfill…Latin American directors have shown that there are no blind or deaf people in our ranks."

The documentary South of the Border by American director Oliver Stone, an interview filmed in January of this year with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Caracas, was chosen to close the Festival.

Stone has stated in various conferences and in press interviews that his intention was to examine the way in which Chávez has been portrayed by the U.S. media and if the Venezuelan president is indeed an "anti-American force."

The director of Platoon, Looking for Fidel, W, Comandante, Natural Born Killers, J.F.K, Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street, and Salvador, among many other films, traveled beyond Venezuela to round out the story and spoke informally with Presidents Evo Morales, Lula da Silva, Fernando Lugo, Cristina Fernández, Rafael Correa and Raúl Castro.

The 31st Festival of New Latin American Cinema has ended after nine days of film, meetings with directors, seminars, and a tribute to ICAIC on its 50^th anniversary.

As is tradition in this capital city, Havana’s intense movie aficionados both supported and enjoyed films from their region.