Latin American films in TTFF mix

This year’s festival is the most ambitious so far, with more films than ever before, including short and feature-length films from Venezuela, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Among the number of films to be screened from Venezuela is the poignant Adam y Eva (Adam and Eve), which asks whether love can blossom in the twilight years. Adam is an old man who has spent all his life working and has forgotten to live. Now he doesn’t know how to talk to the woman he loves. Eve is an old widow who has forgotten how to feel like a woman. Through a peculiar forbidden apple their lives intertwine as they face their loneliness and rediscover who they are in order to overcome their fears of a new beginning.

From Cuba comes the film El Benny, the story of Benny Mor?, music maestro. Mor? straddled the worlds of mambo, son, cha-cha-cha, and Afro-Cuban jazz, to become one of Cuba’s most popular vocalists ever. Nominated for best film at the 2007 Cartagena Film Festival, El Benny follows the conventions of the music biography — we see Mor? scuffle early in his career, before he gets a few breaks and becomes a star. However, his love affair with the bottle threatens to derail his career, as he hurts those he loves the most. In spite of Mor?’s escapades, he remains true to his music, lovingly recreated here by some of Cuba’s finest musicians.

Desamores unfolds like a Puerto Rican made-for-TV film noir with a black private eye, Isabelo, as hero. The owners of a successful insurance agency, a married couple, have been slaughtered along with their employees. While the police are investigating, Isabelo is hired. The investigation takes place in an underworld of frayed relationships and foul connections. Desamores shows us the uglier side of beautiful people, as the cynical detective/hero walks a thin line between a corrupt plutocracy and a psychopathic criminal underclass on the streets of San Juan.

The TTFF is taking place at MovieTowne in Port-of-Spain and at venues throughout the country. For more information, including the full film schedule, visit the TTFF website at www.trinidadandtobagofilmfestival.com.