Balseros (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Balseros |
| Country of production | Spain |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Carles Bosch , Josep Maria Domènech |
| script | Carles Bosch, David Trueba |
| production | Loris Omedes |
| music | Lucrecia Pérez |
| camera | Josep Maria Domènech |
| cut | Ernest Blasi |
Balseros (Spanish for rafters ) is the name of a Spanish documentary film released in 2002 by the directors Carles Bosch and Josep Maria Domènech .
Background and plot
The film is about the so-called balseros , boat refugees who fled from Cuba to the United States during the so-called periodo especial .
The background to this is the collapse of the Eastern Bloc around 1990 and the consequent lack of subsidies from the Soviet Union to Cuba, which caused a rapid increase in poverty in Cuba. This resulted in a flow of refugees that culminated in 1994 with the flight of 50,000 Cubans, some of them unhindered by the Cuban government. For this purpose, the most adventurous boats were built from all materials that could be found in order to cross the 90 miles or 150 kilometers of sea to Florida . Carlos Bosch explained in the intro of the film that it was less about political and more about economic refugees.
The documentary consists of long interviews with the boat builders, the balseros, and looks at the lives of seven refugees over a total of seven years, from building rafts to trying to build a new life in the USA. Insights into daily life in the Cuba of those years and the United States are given.
The film lasts two hours. The first half was filmed in Cuba, including at the end a few scenes from the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , where the lot decided whether the refugees were allowed to enter the USA or not and all of this while the family members knew nothing about their whereabouts . The second hour is about the lives of those Cubans who made it to the United States and were dispersed across the country. These people were filmed again five years later to show their difficulties in adapting to the new society and the resulting homesickness, a "human adventure of people shipwrecked between two worlds".
Prices
- Best foreign film at the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano , Havana, 2002
- Best Spanish-language documentary at the Ajijic Festival Internacional de Cine , Mexico, 2002
- Winner of the IDA Award from the International Documentary Association , 2003
- Nominated for an Oscar , Best Documentary , 2004
- 2004 Peabody Award Winner
- Winner of an Emmy for Cinematography for Josep Maria Domènech (Best Photography), 2005
- Nominated for Best Documentation , Goya . 2003
Web links
- Balseros in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Balseros (Cuban Rafters) at Spirituality & Practice
- http://www.zinema.com/pelicula/2002/balseros.htm
Individual evidence
- ^ NY Times: Balseros . In: NY Times . Retrieved November 23, 2008.