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The Sugar Curtain (also distributed as El telón de azúcar, 2005, in Spanish) cover image

The Sugar Curtain (also distributed as El telón de azúcar, 2005, in Spanish) 2006

Highly Recommended

Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Camila Guzmán Urzú, Luz Films, Paraíso Production Diffusion, con la participatión de Televisión Española TVE
Directed by Camila Guzmán Urzú
DVD, color, 80 min.



Jr. High - Adult
Area Studies, Latin American Studies, Political Science, Social Sciences, Sociology

Date Entered: 11/28/2007

Reviewed by Holly Ackerman, Duke University

A combination of home movie and documentary, The Sugar Curtain is simply and sincerely a nostalgia trip of Director Camila Guzmán Urzúa and a group of her former classmates raised in 1980s Cuba. Guzmán is a Chilean whose mother and film maker father found refuge in Cuba after fleeing Pinochet's regime in 1973. The Sugar Curtain brought her back to Cuba from her present home in France and is her first documentary.

The film combines childhood photos, elementary school drawings, interviews with classmates and footage from the 1980s and 2005 to reminisce about their youthful circumstances and to compare them with their current beliefs and present conditions in Cuba. The blend of materials is not the usual jarring insert of a still photo or newsreel snippet. The mixed media are smoothly crafted in what is an endearing and intimate reverie.

Guzmán’s film joins a crowded field. Since 2005 almost 50 documentaries observing post-Cold War Cuban conditions have been marketed in U.S. academic circles. One has to ask whether we need more and why we have so many. With few exceptions the production is driven by polarized ideological loyalties in the Cuban case. Some proselytize about the achievements of the revolution and declare its extensive popular support; others insist upon the decay and pervasive discontent. Guzman's offering is distinguished by its refusal to conclude or preach. While not the most dramatic of the recent crop, The Sugar Curtain may be the most human. Consequently, it helps the audience contemplate mixed and multiple Cuban realities.

Awards

  • Televisión Española Award 2005 (Spanish version)
  • Best Director, Santiago Film Festival, Santiago, Chile 2007
  • Best picture, Premio Fipresci, Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (BAFICI) 2007