UNA NOCHE
US/Cuba, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Dariel Arrechaga, Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Javier Nunez, Florian.
Directed by Lucy Mulloy.
Una Noche was written and directed by Lucy Mulloy, British, based in New York City but spending time in Cuba. She researched the story about young people wanting to cross the 90 miles from Cuba to Miami, unskilled, risking everything to leave Cuba.
The focus is on a pair of twins and the bond between them until the older, Lila, detects a change in her brother, Elio. She discovers that he is planning to leave Cuba, helping his friend role, who works in a restaurant kitchen with him, and to whom he is physically attracted. The film make something of homophobia amongst young people in Havana, a gang of boys ridiculing a gay young man, rail picking up a prostitute and discovering that she was transvestite, ilio afraid if he is attractions were known.
Eventually, the three set sail for Miami, have engine trouble, have to row, have their boat capsised with that disappearance of ilio, with rail and Lila hanging on until they reach land.
1. Cuban story? Inspired by actual events? The writer-director and had not been Cuban, but sympathetic to Cubans?
2. The locations, Havana, its landmarks, the coast of the sea? The town, the poor areas, the restaurant kitchen, squalid apartments, the world of prostitutes? The musical score?
3. The title, the culmination of the story?
4. Lila, the introduction to her, her voice-over, her relationship with Elio, older twin, on the bikes together, the bonds between them, the past, they growing up, their hard military father and his discipline, the suffering mother? Their prospects?
5. Lila, saying she detected a change in her brother, following him, discovering his plan? And his sexual orientation, infatuation with Raul, her going to the kitchen, meeting Raul, his thinking she was Elio’s girlfriend? The engine, the sabotage for the trip? The tension with her brother?
6. Elio, his work, the talk about sexuality and homosexuality in the kitchen, the behaviour of others, the boss and his talk? Raul working there, wanting to get out, enlisting Elio’s help? Elio getting the medication, the contact, his enormous case of medications? The medication for AIDS? Buying the engine and the sympathetic seller? The sabotage for the trip? Getting ready, prepared to leave his family?
7. The young men in the street, the group, at play, the bikes, the gay boy walking past and their derisive comments?
8. The effect of this on Elio, homophobia, Raul and his picking up the prostitute, his shock in discovering she was a transvestite? Elio and his kiss?
9. Raul, his mother, wanting her to drink the milk, AIDS, her sexual encounter with the tourist, Raul’s attack on him? His mother working at the bridge, the client choosing her over the younger girls? The police, pursuing Raul for attacking the tourist?
10. The decision to leave, Lila and her sudden appearance, going on the boat, the engine, failing, paddling, the sea and Lila not able to swim, Raul helping her, the fear of the sharks? Capsize, Elio lost, Raul and Lila hanging on?
11. There being found, where? Their hopes? The young people finding them and their laughing? The scene of the police and the arrest at the bike? The future, Lila’s hope that Elio would be found?
