Cuba’s return to the international fold, following the thawing of its relationship with longtime tormentor the USA, continued apace at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend with the announcement that Buena Vista Social Club producer Rosa Bosch is to make four new feature documentaries set on the island.
The docs will include an adaptation of British architect Norman Foster and journalist Mauricio Vicente's book Havana Autos and Architecture, a study of former British PM Winston Churchill's time in the country in the late 19th century entitled Churchill in Cuba, and studies of the relationships of both English novelist Graham Greene's and actor Errol Flynn's time spent on the Caribbean island.
It’s great to see the utopian paradise island opening itself up to international productions as part of the new era, but as a long time admirer, I do hope it doesn’t also open itself up to a McDonald’s in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion. That would be a historical disaster that no documentary could ever do justice to.
cnewbould@thenational.ae