A
television presenter announcing the first broadcast
of a Cuban-produced telenovela in many years all but
emptied Havana streets. The TV audience sat transfixed
in front of their often outmoded and barely functional
sets, awaiting a drama "as Cuban as sugar, cigars,
sugar cane and rum" with bated breath. Uli Gaulke's
feature debut is a unique non-fiction film, contrasting
the lives and loves of ordinary Havana citizens with
the melodramatic plot developments on the tube, showing
on several occasions that real life is more romantic
and exciting than its fictionalised counterpart.
Havanna,
Mi Amor's central figure, ingenious but lovelorn
TV repairman Jose, made his first appearance in Gaulke's
short documentary Quien Es El Ultimo
(1997), about an institutionalised trumpet player
and his weakness for... telenovelas. The director's
hope that 'the audience laughs and cries' is certainly
fulfilled.
by
Uli
Gaulke