Film Data:
Los Dioses Rotos (Fallen Gods) is a foreign drama from Cuba by ICAIC Studios. It was written and directed by Ernesto Daranas. This is Daranas' first film as a director. The film was produced in 2008 by Altavista. It was produced with an estimated budget of only $250,000 and it was entirely shot in Havana City. It features Cuban actors and actresses: Carlos Ever Fonseca, Annia Bu Maure, and Silvia Águila on the protagonist roles, and Héctor Noas as the antagonist. Los Dioses Rotos was selected by Cuba as candidate for nomination to the 82nd Academy Awards. It received the Audience Award at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana.
Synopsis:
Laura (Silvia Águila) is a professor of Anthropology at University of Havana that is researching about the famous Cuban pimp Alberto Yarini Ponce de León, who was murdered by his French rivals who controlled the business of prostitution in Havana at the beginnings of the 20th Century. Extremely interested in demonstrating the validity of such individual she steps into the complex reality of contemporary Havana.
Laura meets Rosendo (Hector Noas), who has a handkerchief which originally belonged to Yarini and with which a prostitute covered the wound in his chest after he was shot in the neighborhood of San Isidro in Old Havana in 1910. This handkerchief would be considered the sacred object of the cult of the pimp thereafter.
Laura's innocence at the beginning of the film induces her to search for the original DNA of the blood in the handkerchief, without noticing that she was getting immersed in the chaotic context of the same story of the 1900's, but transposed to contemporary Havana.
The central thematic story develops from a love relationship between Laura and Alberto (Carlos Ever Fonseca), and this relationship takes her to the world of Rosendo and Sandra (Annia Bu Maure), his mulata manageress who is totally dedicated to him.
The tragic ending of the plot reminds the viewer of Yarini and his fate.
Comment:
Ernesto Daranas' opera prima Los Dioses Rotos immerses the viewer in the contemporary Cuban reality, governed by the social extravaganza of pimps, prostitutes, and the commerce of tourists looking for cheap sex. The community is guided by Santeria religious practices where the pimp is seen as Chango, the God of masculinity in that religion, represented in the film by the pimp who was the virile macho man in control over a number of women.
Daranas chose to shoot his film on location, in the neighborhood of San Isidro in Old Havana, to give the film more realism. No other scenery could be better that the same streets where Yarini actually lived, and where the new reality of prostitution develops. Los Dioses Rotos has been classified by some critics as a film with documentary features.
A careful art direction sketches a story with a non-linear plot, with flashbacks to the past, and transforms the script of one of the most famous Cuban theater plays "Réquiem por Yarini", by playwright Carlos Felipe in the 1950's.
The film includes interviews to people who live in this context of prostitution: pimps, "gineteras", travesties. Laura needs real facts to conduct her research and integrates herself into that society, becoming part of the plot. Precisely to enhance the realism of the film, non-diegetic elements such as multiple narrators, create dissimilar points of views about the same reality.
One of the most praised aspects of the film has been its mid-color photography, with special attention to green, yellow, and red tones in most of the scenes in order to enhance the "warmth" of the plot, the need for blood, the Caribbean context. The moving, almost trembling camera in some occasions, particularly on the scenes of Santeria practices, as well as a perfect montage of close-ups, highlight the documentary features of Los Dioses Rotos. The film does not seem to suffer with the use of techniques from television, video clips or even advertising.
Daranas provides the spectator with a work populated by visual and dramatic effects to develop a story of suspense, eroticism, violence, and crime.
Daranas chose to shoot his film on location, in the neighborhood of San Isidro in Old Havana, to give the film more realism. No other scenery could be better that the same streets where Yarini actually lived, and where the new reality of prostitution develops. Los Dioses Rotos has been classified by some critics as a film with documentary features.
A careful art direction sketches a story with a non-linear plot, with flashbacks to the past, and transforms the script of one of the most famous Cuban theater plays "Réquiem por Yarini", by playwright Carlos Felipe in the 1950's.
The film includes interviews to people who live in this context of prostitution: pimps, "gineteras", travesties. Laura needs real facts to conduct her research and integrates herself into that society, becoming part of the plot. Precisely to enhance the realism of the film, non-diegetic elements such as multiple narrators, create dissimilar points of views about the same reality.
One of the most praised aspects of the film has been its mid-color photography, with special attention to green, yellow, and red tones in most of the scenes in order to enhance the "warmth" of the plot, the need for blood, the Caribbean context. The moving, almost trembling camera in some occasions, particularly on the scenes of Santeria practices, as well as a perfect montage of close-ups, highlight the documentary features of Los Dioses Rotos. The film does not seem to suffer with the use of techniques from television, video clips or even advertising.
Daranas provides the spectator with a work populated by visual and dramatic effects to develop a story of suspense, eroticism, violence, and crime.
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