03/15: Conducta / Behavior (Cinephile Sunday: Cuba)

This intense drama from 2014 shows the difficult life of a child who tries to survive after abandonment by his father and the alcoholism that consumes his mother. The protagonist, moulded by a hostile environment, trains fight dogs – an illegal activity in Cuba – to make ends meet. Can his life change when he finds, in an understanding but severe teacher, a lifeguard who tries to keep him afloat, in contrast to the more traditional methods of his other teachers, who seek an easy way out of a complex situation?

This film by Ernesto Daranas was the biggest critical and commercial success in Cuba of the decade, through developing with mastery the relationship between its characters, teacher and student. However, the film goes much further, by criticising society and proposing a much more agile and open educational system.

The film, making ordinary Cuban boys and girls the protagonists, once…