Chamaco
Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti Producers: José Cremata Malberti, Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Iohamil Navarro, Juan Manuel Villar Screenplay: Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Abel González Melo Cinematographer: Lily Suárez Editor: Adrián García Music: Amaury Ramírez Malberti Principal Cast: Fidel Betancourt, Aramís Delgado, Laura Ramos, Luís Alberto García, Alfredo Chang, Caleb Casas
Chamaco is a tense, urban drama adapted from a play by Abel González Melo, which reveals the troubled underbelly of Cuban society. “It’s not a movie that pleases viewers the way US films do,” says Cremata. “It’s bitter, hard, without any sugar-coating, a tough movie to swallow. It speaks of the dark side of human nature.” The plot revolves around the death of a young man in Havana’s Central Park. Using dimly lit shots that accentuate the atmosphere, Cremata investigates a disturbing world of male prostitution and police corruption. Chamaco was filmed in just ten days in the deserted early morning hours on the streets of Havana. Director Juan Carlos Cremata will be in attendance to have a dialogue with the audience.
Passion, ambition, jealousy, sex - a lot of sex - in this case recurring in an artistically well-grounded matrix of homosexual relationships. Rolando Pérez Betancourt, CubaCine
A partir del descubrimiento de un muchacho asesinado en el Parque Central de La Habana se desata una serie de coincidencias que denuncian y comentan acerca de la noche habanera y la corrupción en el ambiente de la prostitución masculina. “Pasiones, ambiciones, celos, sexo, mucho sexo, en este caso recurriendo a una arquitectura de relaciones homosexuales artísticamente justificada; Chamaco, su equipo de realizadores, sus actores, al saber combinar el drama de ribetes existenciales con el trasfondo social que lo dispara, concretan lo más difícil de cualquier historia: hacerse creíble, aún desde lo más tremendo.” Rolando Pérez Betancourt. El director Juan Carlos Cremata estará en la sala para tener un diálogo con el público.
Chamaco won Best International Film at the ÍCARO International Festival of Film in Central America in Guatemala, and the Adolfo Llauradó Award for Best Actor for both Fidel Betancourt and Laura Ramos. After circulating throughout the island on pirated copies, Chamaco had a theatrical release in Cuba in June 2012.