Much of a new 30-minute film about a young woman’s disillusionment with Cuba’s Castro regime was shot without official permission in Cuba, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.
“Irene in Havana,” written by journalist Juan Manuel Cao and directed by Lilo Vilaplana, makes its world premiere Tuesday.
“Several team members traveled to Havana from different countries to avoid suspicions,” Vilaplana told the Herald.
But he said it was all worth it to tell a story that involves executions by firing squad — an issue the Herald reported has been distorted by Cuban propaganda for more than 50 years.
“The Castro regime must be denounced because it’s already 60 years of impunity, and our responsibility is to break through that and not remain silent,” Vilaplana told the Herald.
“We have to go on the offensive. The rulers have to know that the island belongs to us Cubans, and that we will take it back.”
Cao told the Herald writing the script was a challenge as well because it was “the first time the central theme of a Cuban movie is the death penalty.”
“That issue has loomed over our lives for six decades. It was time to deal with it,” he said. “But the hardest part was avoiding a movie becoming a political pamphlet — and allowing the love story to prevail.”
Journalist irene Diaz, the entertainment anchor for the América TeVé news program, plays the title role.
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