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Viva Cuba: An endearing glimpse of childhood friendship

There’s something endearing about this movie — at least there was for the first half, after which the review copy supplied to the newspaper decided to give up the ghost.

It’s about the friendship between two Cuban children, Malu and Jorgito, who promise to each other that they will remain friends for life, despite the fact that their families hate each other.

When Malu’s grandmother dies and her mother decides to go and live abroad, Malu and Jorgito run away together.

Up until this point — roughly where the gremlins set in — the film offered an endearing look at childhood friendship between the sexes, with all the tenderness, harshness and flights of fantasy it entails.

It also offered a tantalizing glance of what life in Cuba is like through a child’s eyes.

Particularly tantalizing as, had the review copy worked, their journey is supposed to then take them across the whole of the country where they have encounters with tourists, talent shows, gremlins and spelunkers.

My intuition, based on the first half of the film, is that this would be very enjoyable for both children and adults alike — but if the second half takes a turn for the worse, don’t blame me.

In Orange: Fun but conventional yarn about soccer dream

Anyone who has played junior soccer will get a kick out of this warm-hearted story of a boy’s struggle to make the Dutch national team.

It lacks the avant-garde boundary pushing quality that makes the best of European cinema so different from what we’re used to seeing in the DVD stores, but it’s a likeable tale nonetheless.

The plot is a pretty conventional ‘follow your dream’ style narrative in the mould of more commercial movies such as Bend it Like Beckham.

Football mad Remco, motivated by his even more football-crazy Dad, dreams of being a professional player and pulling on the Orange shirt to play for Holland.

But when his Dad dies of a heart-attack while cheering on a little too vigorously from the sidelines, he is forced to go it alone.

With his troubles mounting at home — in the form of his mum’s new boyfriend — and on the pitch — because of a nasty ankle injury — Remco begins to imagine his dad is there with him, giving him support.

The story may be set in a small Dutch town but the themes are pretty universal.

The character of Remco — a boy so obsessed with football he sleeps with a ball under his pillow, will be familiar to many soccer families.

Even more familiar are the lines of dads on the sidelines at the youth football games living out their dreams through their sons.

It’s a nice homespun tale with some moving moments but In Orange is not a film you couldn’t see on any other day of the week.

The great thing about the Bermuda International Film Festival is that it brings new and different movies from all over the world that are completely different from what we are used to.

In Orange isn’t one of them. It’s an enjoyable but conventional film.[[In-content Ad]]

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