GFQ 2-2007 - german films

Dos Patrias Cuba y la noche
TWO HOMELANDS CUBA AND THE NIGHT
A film about the discovery of poetry and love in a system
of oppression and discrimination.
The director Christian Liffers travels with his team to Cuba
to search for evidence. Part of his luggage are poems and
prose texts of the Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas. Texts,
which describe the desire for love, sexual freedom and the
proud and unbending attitude in the fight against discrimination.
Are these desires and attitudes still to be found
in Cuba? And which desires, clichés, and projections of
Cuba attract the producer and many more people? Poems
and prose texts are the reference points for the protagonists
and their personal stories of present-day Cuba, which
are always the center of attention. Six men with different
backgrounds and of different ages describe their life,
afflict ions, desires, longings and joys in Cuba. They have
some things in common: homosexuality (with the ex -
ception of Isabel, the transsexual) and the daily social
exclusion on the part of the Cuban “Machismo-society”
and the Cuban government. However they differ heavily
concerning their social status and their opinions of the
topic.
The author made two journeys of investigation to Havana,
where he won the confidence of the protagonists, so that
for the first time people spoke openly in front of a
camera about their homosexuality and life in Cuba.
World Sales (please contact)
Christian Liffers
Seerobenstrasse 30 · 65195 Wiesbaden/Germany
phone +49-1 71-8 30 23 36
email: christianliffers@web.de · www.dospatrias.com
Genre Education, Gay & Lesbian, Literature Category
Documentary Cinema Year of Production 2006 Director
Christian Liffers Screenplay Christian Liffers Director of
Photography Mirko Schernickau Editor Todd P. Mercuri
Music by Michael Espinosa Rodríguez, Los Transes Producer
Christian Liffers Production Company Christian Liffers/
Wiesbaden Length 84 min Format DV Cam, color, 16:9
Original Version Spanish Subtitled Versions English,
German Voice Over German Sound Technology Stereo
Festival Screenings Miami 2007 (In Competition), San Diego
Latino Film Festival 2007, Montevideo 2007 (In Competition),
European Independent Film Festival Paris 2007, London Lesbian and
Gay Festival 2007, Santa Cruz 2007 (In Competition), Las Americas
Latino Film Festival 2007 (In Competition), Nicosia 2007 (In
Competition), Festival de Cine Pobre 2007, Denver XicanIndie
Filmfest 2007 (In Competition), Da Sodoma a Hollywood Turin
2007 (In Competition), MediaWave Gyoer 2007 (In Competition),
NOPOP Aarhus 2007 (In Competition), Hollanda Latin American
Film Festival 2007 (In Competition), ECO Rhodos 2007 (In
Competition), Inside Out Toronto 2007
Christian Liffers studied Theater Direction in Hamburg and
worked for several years in German theaters and as an assistant
director for Werner Schroeter. Active as a writer, director and producer,
he has been working as a journalist for the last 10 years and
for the German broadcaster ZDF. In addition to numerous theater
works, his films include the documentaries: Suicide
Commando, Diary of a Suicide (2001) and Dos Patrias,
Cuba y la noche (2006).
german films quarterly new german films
2 · 2007 47
Scene from “Two Homelands Cuba and the Night” (photo © Christian Liffers)