Paraiso

‘My priority in life is to live; while I live I can have illusions, dreams of getting what I lack, and what I lack is everything. While I live, I can do it’, says Yasel, one of the main characters of this dynamic, moving documentary that focuses on a group of young Cuban musicians. The band from Guantanamo performs mainly on the streets and at local cultural events. Music is everything to these young people who live in extremely poor conditions, without regular jobs and little chance of prosperity. Music gives them hope, inspires them and makes them feel special. Their style finds the space between traditional ‘Guantanamo’, hip-hop and rap. In personal confessions to the camera, the musicians explain what they think about life: love, infidelity, sex, money and success. Mixing black-and-white images from music videos with the colour of everyday life, the director finds their reality, which is also full of boredom and frustration. By blowing DV and super 8 images up to 35 mm, the film’s texture transforms into poetics. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)