The Cuban film 'Corazón azul' receives an award at the Guadalajara Film Festival

October 12, 2021

The film tells an alternate reality, where Fidel Castro uses genetic engineering to build the new man

Coyula has been spending months in which, every Sunday, he invites interested viewers to see a very peculiar production within current Cuban cinema.

The film Corazón Azul, by Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula, won one of the parallel awards at the 36th Guadalajara International Film Festival. The film that addresses "an alternate reality" in which Fidel Castro uses engineering to build the new man, took home the Jorge Cámara Prize this October.

It is a recognition that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is awarding for the first time this year, in tribute to this film promoter, who was the main organizer of the Golden Globes awards and also served as president of the HFPA on three occasions.

Gilda Baum, member of the HFPD, was in charge of announcing that Coyula's Cuban film won the award for Best Ibero-American Fiction Film, which grants 5,000 dollars. "For being a disruptive and very personal work that can only exist in cinematic language," the jury ruled, made up of producers Hugo Villa and Cristina Velasco, screenwriter Daniel Dreifuss and actor Francisco Barreiro.

"Thanks to the actors and actresses and to all the people who worked over 10 years on Corazón Azul. Thanks to Habanero, to the jury and to the International Film Festival in Guadalajara," wrote Miguel Coyula on his Facebook profile, considered one of the great exponents of independent cinema on the Island.

Similarly, one of the film's leading actresses, Lynn Cruz, who also shared costume design and production alongside Coyula, thanked everyone who helped "during the long journey of the film."

The screenplay of the feature film is based on the novel Mar rojo, mal azul, by Miguel Coyula himself, written in 1999 and published 14 years later by Pereza Editorial of Miami. The expenses have been covered by the filmmaker, who was also in charge of direction, cinematography, editing, sound design and special effects.

The world premiere of Corazón azul took place at the Moscow International Film Festival, which selected it from dozens of films from Iran, Russia, China, Italy and Germany.

The story takes place in the early part of this century, in the post-Special Period stage, where a dozen mutants try to explain the cause of their unusual abilities while trying to find their humanity and investigating their past. They then come across the answer that they have been subject to a procedure that entails irreversible results.

After the premiere, Coyula assured that he chose science fiction as a way to allude to reality: "It allows me to talk about current problems and society in a comprehensible way, beyond a specific geographic context; it gives me more freedom to explore and say things without it becoming a brick, a pamphlet."

In Cuba, the film has not had an official premiere; as an alternative, Coyula invites those interested in seeing his work to his own home. The director has been spending months in which, every Sunday, he invites interested viewers to see a very peculiar production within current Cuban cinema.

In addition to the film awarded this week, Coyula, a graduate of the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños, has won numerous national and international awards. His filmography highlights include Cucarachas rojas (2003), Memorias del desarrollo (2010) and the documentary Nadie (2016).