Hello Hemingway
| Hello Hemingway | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Fernando Pérez |
| Produced by | Ricardo Ávila |
| Screenplay by | Mayda Royero |
| Starring | Laura de la Uz, Raúl Paz, José Antonio Rodríguez, Martha del Río, Herminia Sánchez |
| Music by | Edesio Alejandro |
| Cinematography | Julio Valdés |
| Edited by | Jorge Abello |
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | Cuba |
| Language | Spanish |
Hello Hemingway is a 1990 Cuban drama film directed by Fernando Pérez and starring Laura de la Uz. The plot, set in Havana in 1956, near the end of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship, follows a young girl whose aspirations to obtain a scholarship in America, against the odds, are paralleled with her reading of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The film was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not designated a nominee.
In 1956, sixteen-year-old Larita lives with her mother and her aunt's family in a ramshackle house outside Havana. From their garden they can see Ernest Hemingway's white mansion. At home, she adorns her walls with pictures of Elvis Presley and Tony Curtis, while at school she excels in her English class. Larita is delighted when her teacher suggests that she enter a competition for a scholarship to attend university in the United States. Larita also happily dates a classmate, Victor, who is trying to establish a student association.
On a visit to a bookshop, she is given a copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, which she starts to read avidly, drawing parallels between the novel and her own life which she records in her diary. At home, her family tease her about her academic aspirations. They resent the fact that while they work hard she studies and contributes nothing to their meager existence. The issue of finances becomes more acute when Larita is sent home from school because she is not wearing the correct school uniform. However, she passes the first round of scholarship exams and is invited to a reception for the finalists. She makes herself as presentable as possible with the help of her relatives' sewing skills and the support of her grandmother, who pawns her treasured earrings to purchase fabric. She tells Victor that she is on the short list for the scholarship, which makes him angry because she has kept it a secret from him and is preparing to go abroad and abandon him for a year. That night Larita returns home to find that her uncle has been fired from his job as a policeman, which has been the family's principal means of support.
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Wikipedia