Crowds and applause surrounded the world premiere of "El extraordinario viaje de Celeste García"

September 14, 2018

With the presence of Arturo Infante, director and screenwriter of the new Cuban film, producer Claudia Calviño (representing Producciones de la 5ta. Avenida) and the lead actress, María Isabel Díaz, a singularly warm, almost Havana-like world premiere of the German-Cuban co-production The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste García took place at the Toronto International Film Festival, better known as TIFF.

A parable of emigration, or rather of the irrepressible anxiety Cubans have to travel, the film tells the story of Celeste García, a Cuban woman in her sixties, a former Geography teacher, who works in a planetarium, and lives a slovenly and boring life, until the day she receives an invitation letter to travel to a distant planet and meet an alien civilization where chickens are as large as three-story buildings.

The film is an ode to second chances, as noted by a spectator who participated in the also substantive subsequent Questions and Answers session. The applause was long in the packed hall, and several spectators praised the warmth and humanity of a film that, according to producer Claudia Calviño, should have its premiere in Cuba, probably at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

When asked about the weight that ideas such as praise for kindness, faith, and forgiveness had in conceiving the film and the remarkable lead characterization, Arturo Infante responded that it seemed to him more of a film about second chances than about the concepts mentioned before. Each spectator will have their own opinion, but the truth is that the first screening took place amid praise and applause.

María Isabel Díaz did agree that kindness and forgiveness were principles that helped her compose the character, and later confessed that to these two concepts perhaps hope could be added, because Celeste is undoubtedly a great character, which signifies the homecoming of the remarkable actress, and the reunion with her audience who miss her greatly. María Isabel Díaz interprets Celeste García in a state of grace, amid a stellar cast where notable performances of secondary characters abound.

Also standing out in the cast are the secondary performances by Néstor Jiménez, in the role of a veteran tango singer, a down-and-out gay man; Yerlín Pérez as a prosaic and sensual shelter companion; the intransigent camp director Verónica Díaz, and Beatriz Viña, in the role of the also materialistic sister of the protagonist.

The film is programmed within the Discovery section, dedicated to emerging talents and new directors from around the world, and possesses a thematic line similar, in some way, to the recent Sergio and Serguei, and Juan de los Muertos, the latter also produced by Producciones de la 5ta Avenida) and both premiered worldwide at the Toronto Festival. The three films are characterized by coupling certain codes of fantastic cinema with the harsh contemporary Cuban reality.