Director: Héctor Almeida
Running time: 17mins
The costs of running a film festival often mean they struggle to break even, let alone make a profit. That can make granting fee waivers a very difficult ask – resulting in filmmakers who already struggle to have their voices heard being further marginalised.
Movies told by artists from low-income backgrounds, opposition groups hit by censorship, or individuals in nations subjected to international sanctions still need a platform. That’s why Indy Film Library’s Saturday Matinees are returning for a fourth season.
Over the next six weeks, the run of matinees will showcase work from places where monetary and legal constraints have prevented the free communication of political and social issues.
The first film in our free-to-view programme comes from Héctor Almeida, a documentary filmmaker based in Havana. Para Esteban follows three elder Cubans, reflecting on their long lives, as they celebrate the birth of their great-grandson.
Amid the isolation of the Covid-19 lockdown, Gregorio, Dolores and Zoila construct remote messages of advice to the newest member of their family. As they are evidently coming up on their eighties – if they have not already reached that point – they have each lived through the formative history of modern Cuba, and through that they have learned the importance of love and shared memories, in the face of hardship.
Some of the social transformation encapsulated in that time is summed up when Gregorio recalls that during his childhood, his mother was unable to afford medicine for him, and was forced to barter with the doctor to take a chicken in exchange for saving her child’s life. An undefined amount of time later, he remembers how powerless he felt when the roles reversed, and she died in a bed in the family home. From that time when nobody was given much chance to meet their grandchildren, let alone great-grandchildren, we flash forward to Cuba as it is now – and Gregorio using medication he once might have struggled to obtain, having survived to the birth of Esteban.
There are also signs of the international isolation Cuba has been cast into thanks to the prevailing hostility of the United States. Dolores speaks on the verge of tears about being separated from her sister who left Cuba, and out of fear at the situation, only returned once in the intervening decades before her death. She also remembers her husband going on a “mission” to Congo – which may or may not relate to Cuba’s intervention in the civil war sparked by a US-backed coup – and brings out a tearful letter from him at the time, noting how precious his family is to him.
In these moments, it is hard not to feel that Almeida’s film might delve deeper into a context it only hints at. If the point of this film is to give young Esteban access to a catalogue of memories which are dying out, it might help to try and tie the experiences being talked about to the present day. To not only state “here is what your great-grandparents are like” or “here is what their Cuba was like”, but also to try and more directly consider how the past shaped either – and how it continues to shape Esteban’s present.
With that being said, I have noted before that not every film coming out of countries facing political or economic sanctions should have to be a philosophical treatise for it to be worthy of an audience, or to execute its end-goal effectively. More importantly, Para Esteban will serve as a treasure trove of memories, connecting a new generation to a past that is fading from living memory, and reminding it not to take the world, or the people in it, for granted.
When asked for advice to give to Esteban, one of the most moving tracts in the film comes from Zoila. She is keen to remind him that everyone can live on in the love they give to those around them, in good times or bad – and that kind of collective care has the power to shape the future for the better – a timely and poignant message, however you look at it.
“Whether there are material conditions or not, it’s not about self-interest, but the feeling of love, which is told to grandchildren, children, friends,” she notes. “So, tomorrow you can gather that love, that feeling as I want you, in the future when I’m gone, remember your grandmother.”
The film will be available to view for free in full from 09:00 UK time on Saturday the 13th of January, until the end of the weekend, via our Saturday Matinees theatre page. Viewers will also be invited to rate the film out of five, to help determine the winner of this Saturday Matinees season.
As the film is still trying to gain access to other festivals, the page is password protected. Use the code IFLMATINEE2324 to access the film.
Stay tuned for another film next week!
It is a great idea to be able to leave that legacy or historical memory to your grandchildren. Congratulations!