Léalo en español
Originally published Aug. 30, 2023
In his first feature film, Oceans Are the Real Continents, Tommaso Santambrogio expands on a short of the same title that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and now opens the Giornate degli Autori section of Venice.
The plot unfolds in long, leisurely takes that resemble still photography, shot in beautiful black and white, over the course of two mesmerizing hours, although the editing could have been tighter. The film reflects on the lingering beauty and the deep sorrow of survivors of a social and economic catastrophe that has rendered them either paralyzed by grief or clinging to dreams of escape and success far from Cuba’s shores. Separation affects every Cuban family, and the film recounts the wounds inflicted by the difficult decision to part ways with loved ones.
Santambrogio, who was born in Milan, studied film there and in Cuba before making such award-winning shorts as Taxibol (2022) and L’Ultimo Spegne la Luce (2021). He recreates the atmosphere of Cuba poignantly as his eye and ear for detail reveal a familiarity with the treasures and travails encountered in daily life: street vendors offer peanuts, fried plantains, or guarapo (sugar cane juice); tropical downpours mingle with nostalgic boleros playing on the radio; the swooshing a broom makes on the floors of a dilapidated house; the clanging bell shaken by a station master announcing the arrival of a rusty train.
The film gently unfolds the three main plot lines. Milagros is a widow still grieving over the death of her husband in distant Angola; a young couple, Edith and Alex, are deciding whether to pursue their artistic careers at home or abroad; Frank and Alain are two boys who dream of becoming star players for the New York Yankees. All actors use their real names in the film and contribute to what Santambrogio calls “a choral, collective work.” Dialog is sparse and information is sometimes conveyed off-screen: a radio reports an anniversary of the Angolan wars, where over ten thousand Cubans died; parents discuss their plans to emigrate, thinking their young son cannot hear them argue.
San Antonio de los Baños, a small village close to Cuba’s famed international film school that Santambrogio attende, serves as a perfect location for those stories. Inspired perhaps by Italian neorealism, Santambrogio uses non-professional actors that he came to know for several years before filming started and encouraged to improvise. The acting he elicits is spontaneous, but at times it can feel staged and stilted.
In the stunning opening scene, a skinny Black man is crucified on a raft that slowly drifts away from a bereaved woman closer to shore. He is Alex, an art teacher, and his partner is Edith, a puppeteer. Their performances provide other symbolic representations of life in Cuba; Alex’s art students are blindfolded but urged to recognize their environment by touch and sound; Edith’s puppets dangle from ropes that threaten to suffocate them, but they manage to embrace nonetheless. Time seems suspended in the quiet streets of the village, but we are jolted awake into the present day when strobe lights and rock music erupt at Edith’s opening night, or on a trip to the Italian embassy where they require electronic verification of fingerprints before issuing a visa.
The film evolves in layers of meaning and salutes some Black Cuban artists, such as filmmaker Landrián (whose films are re-imagined in an abandoned cinema) and composer Bola de Nieve. Cuban cinema flourished in the years following the 1959 Revolution. Still, while many acclaimed films have dealt with the themes of separation, notably Humberto Solás’s Honey for Oshun (2001), or Tomas Gutiérrez Alea’s Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) and Strawberry and Chocolate (1993), few have dealt with the taboo of Fidel Castro’s costly adventures and interventions in Africa. Cuban filmmakers have suffered waves of expulsions and exile, as occurred with Landrian; more recently, Carlos Lechuga and Pavel Giroud have emigrated to Spain. The Cuban Film Institute, (ICAIC) is currently facing a rebellion by filmmakers outraged by the censorship and unlawful broadcast of Juan Pin Vilar’s documentary about Argentine musician Fito Paez, beloved in Cuba but critical of the regime.
Santambrogio’s cerebral filmmaking is most effective when he finally allows emotions to break through in scenes that convey the pain of those left behind: Milagros hanging her husband’s letters to dry after her home floods; Alex invoking his African gods in a prayer to the sacred Ceiba tree; Frank comforting a caged canary from his balcony, which in turn is surrounded by iron bars. Los Oceanos son los verdaderos continentes/Oceans Are the Real Continents is an ode to a wounded, wondrous country that still bleeds and loses its young to emigration.
Director, screenplay, Tommaso Santambrogio
Cast:: Milagros Llanes Martinez, Alexander Diego, Edith Ybarra Clara, Frank Ernesto Lam, Alain Alfonso Gonzalez
Cinematography: Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci
Editing: Matteo Faccenda
Sound Design: Tommaso Barbaro
Live Sound: Victor Jaramillo
Producers: Marica Stocchi, Gianluca Arcopinto
Executive Producers: Ricardo Figueredo Oliva, Marcello Mustilli, Alessandra Limentani
Delegate Producer: Ivan Casagrande Contiroduction companies: Rosamont Production, RAI Cinema, Cacha Films
World sales: Fandango Sales
Venue: Venice Film Festival 2023
In Spanish
119 minutes