Viva Cuba is a 2005 Cuban tragicomedy film, directed and co-written by Juan Carlos Cremata, with Manolito Rodriguez as the other co-writer.
[1] In Viva Cuba, a road movie fairy tale,[2] Cremata tackles localized Cuban problems from the literal point of view of the country's children.
Viva Cuba is a Cuban independent film that explores emigration and the effects it can have on children who have to leave friends and extended families behind.
The viewer knows they are unlikely to ever see each other again, unless Malú's mother can be granted re-entry, which is extremely unlikely given the state of Cuban immigration laws.
One day, Malú gets hungry, and the two kids find a tent containing tons of food and goods, although they don't know who it belongs to.
The kids fight over who gets to eat what food until the owner of the tent arrives, asking why they were trespassing.
When they reach the lighthouse where Malú's father works, the forms have already been signed before she can persuade him otherwise.
The parents (minus Malú's father), having reached the lighthouse before the kids got there, begin to beat their children and argue among each other.
The two children run away from the fight and console each other on a cliff, as a large wave washes over them, and the film ends.
Another implied ending is that after the children hug they jump off the cliff and commit suicide.
Taking place in Cuba, Malú is from a middle-class family and her single mother does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background is coarse and common-place.
Jorgito's mother, a poor socialist proud of her family's social standing, places similar restrictions on her son.
One day, Malú gets hungry, and the two kids find a tent containing tons of food and goods, although they don't know who it belongs to.
The kids fight over who gets to eat what food until the owner of the tent arrives asking why they were trespassing.
The parents (minus Malú's father), having reached the lighthouse before the kids got there, begin to beat their children and argue among each other.
It is implied that the two children jump off of the cliff, committing suicide, although this is not shown in the movie.
The film became a box office hit and went on to win many awards nationally and internationally as it was displayed at many film festivals around the world, including 2005 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix Ecrans Juniors Award,[3] plus awards in countries as diverse as Australia, Italy, Guatemala, Germany, France, and Taiwan.