Havana Blues is a 2005 Spanish

Cinema of Spain

The art of motion-picture making within the nation of Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition as a result of its creative and technical excellence...

 and Cuban

Cinema of Cuba

Cinema arrived in Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. Before the Cuban Revolution of 1959, about 80 full-length films were produced in Cuba. Most of these films were melodramas...

 film by Benito Zambrano

Benito Zambrano

Benito Zambrano , is an awarded Spanish screenwriter and film director. His film Habana Blues was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival...

, which tells the story of two young musicians in Cuba. The film revolves around their music and contains criticism of problems in Cuba such as poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 and electricity outages

Power outage

A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...

. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard

Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

 section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

2005 Cannes Film Festival

The 2005 Cannes Film Festival started on May 11 and ran until May 22. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on May 21...

.

The two musicians, Ruy and Tito, (Yoel and Sanmartín) whose music is a mix of traditional Cuban music and more modern music such as rap, get a chance at an international breakthrough through a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 record company, but they would have to change their Cuba-themed lyrics to cater to an international audience. Ruy considers this a betrayal of his country and his art, whereas Tito recognizes the financial necessity of it. At the same time, Ruy is dealing with the fact that his children and their mother Caridad (Sierra) are leaving for the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Art versus commerce, nationalism versus globalism, and communism versus capitalism are some of the themes of the film.

Cast

• Alberto Yoel - Ruy (as Alberto Yoel García)
• Roberto Sanmartín - Tito
• Yailene Sierra - Caridad
• Mayra Rodríguez - Lucía
• Ernesto Escalona - Carlitos
• Marta Calvó - Marta
• Roger Pera - Lorenzo
• Osvaldo Doimeadiós - Roger
• Zenia Marabal - Luz María
• Laris Vega - Betty
• Jorge Alí - Nelson (as Jorge Ali Pérez)
• Félix Pérez
  Felix Perez
  Felix Perez or Félix Pérez may refer to:* Félix Javier Pérez, Puerto Rican basketball player* Felix Perez , American soccer player with the Fresno Fuego...
  
   - René
• Aurora Basnuevo - Estrellita
• Tomás Cao - Álex (as Tomás A. Cao)
• Giordano Serrano - Giordano

External links

• Habana Blues on the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  .