Strawberry and Chocolate
| Strawberry and Chocolate Fresa y chocolate |
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| Directed by |
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Juan Carlos Tabío |
| Produced by | Camilo Vives Frank Cabrera Georgina Balzaretti |
| Written by |
Story: Senel Paz Screenplay: Senel Paz |
| Starring |
Jorge Perugorría Vladimir Cruz Mirta Ibarra Francisco Gattorno |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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108 minutes |
| Country | Cuba Mexico |
| Language | Spanish |
Strawberry and Chocolate (Spanish: Fresa y chocolate) is an internationally co-produced film, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, based on the short story "The Wolf, The Forest and the New Man" (in Spanish, El Lobo, el bosque y el hombre nuevo) written by Senel Paz in 1990. Senel Paz also wrote the screenplay for the film.
The story takes place in Havana, Cuba in 1979. David (Vladimir Cruz) is a university student who meets Diego (Jorge Perugorría), a gay artist unhappy with the Castro regime's attitude toward the LGBT community as well as the censored conceptualization of culture. David's homophobic classmate, Miguel (Francisco Gattorno), plans to use David to spy on Diego, a person whom they see as aberrant and dangerous to the Communist cause; Diego, for his part, initiates the friendship with sexual intentions.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert comments that "nothing unfolds as we expect. Strawberry and Chocolate is not a movie about the seduction of a body, but about the seduction of a mind. It is more interested in politics than sex — unless you count Sexual Politics, since to be homosexual in Cuba is to make an anti-authoritarian statement whether you intend it or not."
The title refers to a comment made by Diego that immediately proves to David that Diego is gay when at Havana's Coppelia (ice cream parlor) he choses strawberry ice cream even though chocolate (vastly more popular) is available.
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Wikipedia