Cuba in Shorts

The enemy is the mosquito, carrier of the dengue fever. With a combination of individual commitment and all the state-sponsored support they can muster, the members of this fumigation brigade pursue the foe across the ramshackle housing stock that covers most of Old Havana.

A chance to step back and take a deep breath: HAVANNA ESPERANDO is a poem of the moment. Whilst the camera searches, taking its bearings from fleeting images, coasting by the city's walls of crumbling plaster and lingering longer on the occasional facial expression, with both the city and the moment accompanied by music, creating a unique interplay.

Lorenza is an elderly inhabitant of the Sierra Maestra mountain range, where life is a daily struggle for survival. The most pressing issue she faces however is whether, and then when, she'll be able to listen to her favourite radio series. Her old transistor device confronts her with a very different reality however.

During morning roll call a youngster dreams of being free as a bird, swaying his arms alone at sea. Later an elderly gentleman sits motionless in a wheelchair, alone on an abandoned street, only to be encountered by the boy, who takes him on an impromptu excursion across the deserted city.

Dogs in Havana: they belong to a variety of social classes, with each and every one of them enjoying a different standard of living, from audacious opulence to desperate poverty. You thus might say that that the expression every dog has its day doesn't apply to Cuba.

Twenty-year-old Yoemil inherits his father's Polski Fiat and resolves to return the car to working order, hoping both to reconnect with his father, with whom he craves a closer relationship, as well as use the car as a springboard to a brighter future.