User:MiramarArt/Blue Heart (Cuban film)

Blue Heart is a Cuban science fiction film written and directed by Miguel Coyula, starring Lynn Cruz, and Carlos Gronlier. Its world premiere took place at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2021. It has participated in other events such as the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival (BAFICI) in Argentina.

Plot
In an alternative reality, Fidel Castro considers that only with genetic engineering he will save his utopia of building "The New Man" Several experiments are carried out to achieve this end, but they giving rise to extremely dangerous individuals who threaten to succumb society in a rampage of mayhem and violence. One of the members of this terrorist cell, Elena, embarks on a journey to the origin of her genetic code, in search of her humanity.

Awards and nominations

 * Diploma for its conceptual audacity - Minsk International Film Festival, Belarus, 2021
 * HFPA Award - Guadalajara International Film Festival, México, 2021
 * Nominated to the Golden St. George - Moscow International Film Festival, Rusia, 2021

Production
The film was filmed clandestinely, in chronological order over 10 years. In the course of the shoot, several actors abandoned the project, most notably the case of Héctor Noas which forced the director to rewrite the script constantly. Another relevant event in its production was the interrogation of photographer Javier Caso, who after taking photographs of the shoot, was summoned by Cuban secret police for an interrogation, which audio he recorded with a hidden cell phone.

Controversy
The film was censored at the Festival LISTAPAD in Minsk, Belarus, where it was removed from the official competition, and placed in the section of "Young cinema", although the director was 44 and Blue Heart was his fourth feature. In Morocco, the Festival International De Cinéma Et De Mémoire Commune (FICMEC) withdrew it of his program. In both countries the film was declared pornographic and the director was asked to cut some scenes. In both cases Coyula refused. The film remains forbidden in Cuba. In 2023, The Miami Film Festival included a wide showcase of Cuban films which excluded Blue Heart. On this event, the Venezuelan critic Pablo Gamba wrote: "Miguel Coyula has turned into an emblem of political discomfort in current Cuban cinema. It is an honor due to no only to civil servants of culture and the secret police of Cuba, where he lives. It has also become extensive to Miami."

Reception
At Cineaste Magazine, Matthew David Roe refered to the film as "The culminating point of Miguel Coyula's artistic growth […] It stands as his most visceral experience". Patricia Boero wrote at The Film Veredict "a complex, cryptic, compelling film […] it lingers in your mind as you try to decipher its codes" Argentinian critic Pablo Gamba described it in Los Experimentos as "emblematic of contemporary Cuban Culture"

Cuban critic Néstor Díaz de Villegas wrote on Hypermedia Magazine: "the “National Hero”, as the aesthetic apotheosis of the zombie, is the true protagonist of Blue Heart. His predelinquent dangerousness is the pure act of terrorism. “Hero” is also the engendro of the “artivism” in so much as appropriation of the socialist artistic program by social scourges. Coyula has seen it clearly. He has gaezed beyond Tania Bruguera and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. His heroic image supplants the hieratic effigy of Che Guevara with which the film opens—and perhaps, the secret history of modern art"