Una Noche

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing a film being shown at the Jameson Dublin Irish Film Festival, and the movie and experience were both so fantastic I wanted to share them!

The movie, Una Noche, follows a girl (Lila), her twin brother (Eliot, and his best friend (Raul) in their lives in Havana. Elio and Raul are planning on building a raft and using it to get to Miami. Lila ends up joining their plan, and without spoiling the ending (which we all know I would do), it's such a powerful and moving story, I dont want to ruin it for anyone. Also, it will be released in the States in June, AND I really want it to do well while in the States, so you will just have to go see it yourself! It was such a simple story, but it shows the civilian side of Havana (it was shot there), uses non-professional actors who the writer/director found on the streets of Havana, and it was a truly captivating sort of love story as well. I highly highly recommend it.

Afterwards the writer/director, Lucy Mulloy, did a q&a. The movie actually originated as a short film and was her thesis for NYU's film school. She actually was nominated for a student Oscar for it. She gained funding from mainly UK non-film people having only a synopsis of the story, no script! She had relatively no issues with gaining permits to film in Cuba, but Cuba has now banned the film, which is unfortunate because they were hoping to put it in the running for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars next year, and I wholeheartedly believe it could be a real contender! (Maybe the UK will submit it?) She brought the film and the three principal actors to the Berlin Festival, which was the actors' first time leaving Cuba. She brought it and them to TriBeCa, but the day before the festival the actors who played the brother and sister went missing (they had become a couple in real life). She was worried and called Javier's (Elio) mom, but the mom was calm, so Lucy knew it had been planned. She heard from Javier after he and the actor who played Raul jointly won Best Actor at TriBeCa. Think about that: these two men who were literally found on the streets of Havana, with no acting experience, won Best Actor at TRIBECA. Woah! The actor who played Raul has also stayed in the States.  Oh, we found those things out because someone asked if she wanted to continue the story, and she said she had written it as a trilogy, but the actors were no longer available (which led to the story of how they ended up staying in the States).  Lucy also said when Una Noche is released in the States they are going to try to get the three actors agents.  Oh! And the film is based off a true story, which Lucy told us, and let me tell you, also an interesting story.

I'm not sure if I captured how fantastic an experience tonight was, but it really was! Such a fabulous film and such an interesting history. Go see it whenever you can!!