Memories of Underdevelopment

(Memorias del Subdessarollo) 1968

Mr Bongo Films

R1 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

Black and White, Spanish language with clear subtitles

This film was made to reflect on the times of Castro’s takeover of Cuba and its effect on the people. We see it through the eyes of Sergio, a modestly wealthy bourgeois intellectual who has decided to stay in Cuba rather than emigrate to the United States. Cuba was finally coming out of its long colonial past but it was desperately underdeveloped both economically and culturally. Since Batista’s revolution had scared away the tourists on which the country depended most of the people are barely eking out a living. Sergio’s family business has been confiscated but he still has some income from blocks of flats that he owns.

As the film opens his ex-wife has left him to go to the U.S. Many of his friends are following. They can’t see themselves as having much of a life or future under Fidel Castro, who has now taken control of the Government. Sergio rather loves his impoverished little country and has decided to stay and see how it turns out. He is ideally placed to follow the post-revolution redevelopment of Cuba, if that is what will happen. Meanwhile he must survive until the country gets itself going again.

Although the revolution is over the international troubles are just beginning. The Bay of Pigs incident has soured relations between Cuba and the United States. Castro has turned to the Russians for economic aid and they are now shipping missiles to Cuba as part of the Cold War. American tourists could have kept the economy going but Cuba is now embargoed and the tourists won’t be back. The people who depended on them are unemployed. There is a rather pathetic scene in one of the night clubs as some of the remaining bourgeoisie try to maintain their lives as if nothing has happened, but outside on the streets people are hungry.

Sergio finds his life a bit lonely as his friends leave and he turns to his housekeeper for some sort of sexual relief. He becomes a womaniser as he drifts through life, observing the events unfolding. Like most Cubans he only knows what he is shown on the nightly TV but the scenes and news clips intercut into the film show a country that is more concerned with international relations than with looking after its people. It seems Cuba simply cannot look deeply enough inside itself to realise how underdeveloped it is and to drag itself out of poverty and become a truly independent country.

The film doesn’t labour the political aspects. Insulated by the carefully filtered TV news the Cubans are given enough information to keep them aware, but mostly they don’t care as the daily battle for existence is more important. It would be easy to have made the film as a political piece full of slogans but Director Tomas Gutierrez Alea did not fall into this trap – it would have implied a level of political awareness that the underdeveloped Cubans simply did not have. Sergio, with his education and middle class background, is also underdeveloped. He has no political convictions or power yet his love for his country and his abilities could have made him useful to the Revolution. Instead he is just a powerless observer.

He finally runs into trouble when he meets and seduces the young virginal Elena. In the old days he may have gotten away with his actions but now he must appear in court to answer charges of rape. His personal life is disintegrating. The missile crisis is deepening. The government is taking more control of the country and young people are being drafted into Cuba’s ever growing army. Time has run out for Sergio. His Cuba is now developing but perhaps not in the direction that he would prefer.

After seeing this film I must wonder if this is how many Europeans felt towards the outbreak of World War 2. To flee and lose everything or to stick it out and survive? Sergio has trouble adapting to the changing situation and this may also have been typical of the Jewish population of Europe. Watching the changes close-up through Sergio’s eyes is rather frightening but it makes for a powerful film.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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