El Vientre de la Ballena

Partager :

Note of intent

The documentary film starts as an exercise of contemplation of a man who, because of a series of failures, one day decided to hide away in the house. My father, who with so many plans and undertakings never had time to talk with his family, now has all the time of the world to grumble about the new situation of the country. I am interested in taking the feeling of loss to the screen. The history of a man who loses a country just as he knows it, loses his family, loses his capacity to integrate.

Synopsis

The certainty of a change is breathed in each of the corners in Havana. In the last months Cuba begins to look less like Cuba and more like the rest of the world. While everyone seems to be hurried to sell or buy something inside a dark home, the father of the director looks at the changes with apparent indifference, while refusing to go to the street. This documentary film dialogues on the future of Cuba through the view of a man who considers himself incapable of inserting within the new context. At the same time, it is an exercise on memory, a history on the destruction of a model of society for the construction of another. While everyone seems to look at the future, this film asks… what about those who are not able to insert themselves?

Visual concept

The Belly of the Whale will be essentially filmed as an observation documentary. The film has my father as its main character and is structured on the base of three key moments: Living in the Mobility vs Immobility and Disparity. Everything having to do with my father will be shot in a home movie style. The histories of the other three characters will be approached with a more unhurried and observational camera. Once in the exteriors, that Cuba changing, will be portrayed in a more oneiric way… as someone looking at a landscape for the last time.