The Cuban directorLuis Alejandro Yero denounced this Thursday that his feature-length documentary "Calls from Moscow" (2023) was excluded without valid artistic justification from the official selection of the 44th edition of the Havana New Latin American Cinema Festival.
Yero, who is also coordinator of the Documentary Chair at the International School of Cinema and Television (EICTV) of San Antonio de Los Baños, questioned in a post on Instagram "What pretexts are they going to create now in the absence of Calls from Moscow in the programming of the Havana Film Festival?”
The work had its world premiere in February of this year in the Forum section of the Berlinale and a month ago the filmmaker was informed that the film, and others, were awaiting the last word from the censors of Cuban officials.
The director claimed on Instagram to have first-hand information about the pressure exerted in the selection process and revealed that some films were notified of their inclusion just one day before the official festival conference.
He also stated that many workers were threatened in an "old mafia" style to keep them silent about these pressures.
"It is immoral to participate in a festival that hides these abuses and welcomes filmmakers from all over the continent as if Havana – a city sunk in sadness – were aresort Caribbean where you can drink mojitos and pat each other on the shoulder," said the director.
According to the filmmaker,"Calls from Moscow" was censored for addressing uncomfortable topics, such as the crisis in Cuba related to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
"We know that "Calls from Moscow"has been censored for some uncomfortable phrases that point to the collapse and lack of morality of a government that covertly supports Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which has led to the ruin of an entire country and caused the largest exodus in the history of Cuba – more than 500 thousand people in a year and a half, the equivalent of 5 percent of its population – which has its young people scattered across half the world and, as some of the film's participants say, prefer to be at minus 20 degrees, illegal and in the most homophobic country in Europe, before returning to Cuba," he noted.
"We are saddened and deeply angered by this gesture by the Cuban political and cultural authorities who, increasingly isolated from their own creators, expel any uncomfortable narrative from their discourse," he stressed.
The documentary, which had its world premiere at the Berlinale, has been recognized at other international festivals, including MoMA's Festival of International Nonfiction Film and Media.
"It is a painting of helplessness, of desolation but also of resilience (...) it is a very rigorous film," said Argentine film critic Diego Lerer.
Luciano Monteagudo, from the newspaper Página 12, also considered the film "a prodigy of synthesis and eloquence, once again with minimal resources and locations. (...) It is notable how director Yero (...) manages to bear witness to his time with so few elements," he expressed in a review of the film.
"There will be no silence or oblivion in the face of these actions of violence. Know that the story of the nation, of culture, of society, is less and less in your hands," Yero told the Cuban censors in his post.
This new act of censorship occurs amid strong questions about theculture Ministry and the ICAIC for the censorship of another documentary, "Fito's Havana", ofJuan Pin Vilar, which was also excluded from theHavana Film Festival, which will take place between December 8 and 17.
In 2018 Yero won theCoral Award for Best Short or Medium Film, the highest distinction offered by the ICAIC during the days of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, in Havana, for his work "The Old Heralds."
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