Cuban Cinema at the start of the new millennium: Dysfunction, isolation and the struggle for identity

This work examines some of the cinematic representations of Cuban cultural identity in films in the first five years of the new millennium, enlightened by Stuart Hall’s comments on the fluidity of identity, and by ideas on the incorporation of critical art into the institutional process of revolution. Through artistic endeavours, the Cuban Revolution has sought to constantly adjust its own position vis-a-vis the notion of producing and projecting images of cultural identity and this has been acknowledged in recent films in Cuba, particularly since the end of the 1980s. But there have always been certain fixed parameters concerning the presentation of Cuban identity to do with the essence of José Martí, radical nationalism, social liberation, independence, and equality for example. In the new century the panorama of Cuban cinema becomes ever more critical and here I would like to propose that during this period Cuban cinema is inward looking in a process of self-examination in an increasingly fraught and anxious way with films like Lista de espera, Miradas, Miel para Oshún, Suite Habana, Entre ciclones, Perfecto amor equivocado, Barrio Cuba, Doble juego, and Viva Cuba to name some of them. A number of these films expose dysfunctionality in families, relationships and society in general. This presentation of societal malfunction is perhaps a way of voicing criticism of the way that society is structured, although it remains to be seen if these films provide any answers. So, by voicing and envisioning a critique of a malfunctioning society these films question traditional ideas of Cuban revolutionary national identity.