Cuba Va: The Challenge of the Next Generation

Wed, 13 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

When it was made, this earnest film was disdained in both of the countries that it was intended for: Cuba and Russia. It was made in 1964 as a “friendship project” between the new communist regime in Cuba and its older sibling, the one in Russia. In both countries, it was scorned as an entirely derivative piece of gee-whiz communist propaganda, as ham-fisted, culturally, in its approach to Cuban-ness as it was overt and obvious in its celebration of communism. However, rarely has such a set-piece been as exuberantly and vigorously put together. This is why, in 1993, it was viewed by critics at the Sundance Film Festival as a kind of classic; they considered it to be an archetypal representative of a whole genre of filmmaking. In one segment, an old cane worker sets fire to his fields rather than sell his harvest to a large American corporation. In another, some guerillas link up with peasants near the end of the Cuban revolution, and in another, a group of revolutionary students harass the previous government of Cuba by staging a series of riots. However, it is not the story and its content which prompted so much admiration for this film, but its difficult, ingenious and skillful cinematography and its luxuriant score which contrasts sharply with the humorless narration and bathetic stories.

Daughter from Danang

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0000

In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of “Operation Babylift.” Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war’s end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee – a married woman with kids – had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance. Unlike most reunion stories that climax with a cliché happy ending, Daughter from Danang is a real-life drama. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee and back to Vietnam, Daughter from Danang tensely unfolds as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll in a riveting film about longing and the personal legacy of war.

Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco – MRQE

Cuba Va: The Challenge of the Next Generation

Daughter from Danang