Synopse
Edificio Cuba is an overcrowded, five-story apartment building located in the historic district of Old Havana. For six-year-old Yeison and the other children who live there, the open corridors of Edificio are a fascinating, though sometimes dangerous, space for growing up and socializing.
Yeison is hyperactive and insubordinate, frequently barging uninvited into his neighbors' apartments, charming people with his sense of humor, and getting into trouble. His mother, Eulalia, constantly searches for steady employment, leaving him in the care of neighbors. His father, Nelsito, a charismatic hustler, only rarely appears on the scene, using the boy for his own purposes when he does. It's no wonder that Yeison's "adoptive" family become his friends from the community: sensible Chivo (8), who recently enrolled in a prestigious national music school and became his parents' hope for a better future; clever Lislearsi (9), daughter of the local businessman who bosses other kids around; enterprising David (8), and Mario, an 80-year-old veteran of the Cuban Revolution, who occasionally takes on the real burden of caring for the boy.
The film tells an eight-year-long story of Yeison and his friends growing up, marked by turbulent and uncertain times in the Cuban capital. The action returns to their lives every two years, always during winter when Yeison celebrates his birthday. The rituals, preparations and expectations associated with this date – different and surprising every year – serve as the dramaturgical axis for this intimate and emotional chronicle about family, friendship, and social cohesion in changing times.
Yeison is hyperactive and insubordinate, frequently barging uninvited into his neighbors' apartments, charming people with his sense of humor, and getting into trouble. His mother, Eulalia, constantly searches for steady employment, leaving him in the care of neighbors. His father, Nelsito, a charismatic hustler, only rarely appears on the scene, using the boy for his own purposes when he does. It's no wonder that Yeison's "adoptive" family become his friends from the community: sensible Chivo (8), who recently enrolled in a prestigious national music school and became his parents' hope for a better future; clever Lislearsi (9), daughter of the local businessman who bosses other kids around; enterprising David (8), and Mario, an 80-year-old veteran of the Cuban Revolution, who occasionally takes on the real burden of caring for the boy.
The film tells an eight-year-long story of Yeison and his friends growing up, marked by turbulent and uncertain times in the Cuban capital. The action returns to their lives every two years, always during winter when Yeison celebrates his birthday. The rituals, preparations and expectations associated with this date – different and surprising every year – serve as the dramaturgical axis for this intimate and emotional chronicle about family, friendship, and social cohesion in changing times.
Fotogalerie
