JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

One Way or Another
The revolution in action

by Carlos Galiano

from Jump Cut, no. 19, December 1978, p. 33
copyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1978, 2005

We have reprinted this review from Granma Weekly Review (English version), Havana, Nov. 20, 1977.

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Using the residential district of Miraflores — built by the Revolution for the inhabitants of the shantytown on the outskirts of Havana known as Las Yaguas — as the setting, the Cuban film DE CIERTA MANERA (ONE WAY OR ANOTHER) presents a sociological analysis of life in marginal communities and of its manifestations in the psychological, moral and cultural behavior of people who formed part of that social sector in pre-revolutionary Cuba.

Marginalism is a phenomenon that reveals in one of its most dramatic forms — particularly in underdeveloped countries — the injustice and inequality inherent in the capitalist system. As such, marginalism generates a code of behavior that reflects most acutely the distortions in the social relations typical of that system. Individualism, an overestimation of personal friendship, the cult of a code of honor based on false values and male chauvinism are, among others, typical characteristics of a society divided into classes, and these take on an aberrant intensity in the marginal world. Needless to say, such attitudes are the most protracted hangovers and difficult to eradicate once a new social order is established in which the economic conditions that gave rise to them no longer exist.

The film reveals the new reality that the Revolution has placed within the reach of all those sectors of the population that, in the past, lived in the shantytowns. It's a reality that ranges from a radical change in living conditions to the enjoyment of public health services, education, etc.. Interpolating scenes of the demolition of dilapidated tenement buildings and the construction of new apartment buildings, the film presents the clash between a value system doomed to disappear — just like the socio-economic order responsible for its existence has done — and a new value system that is beginning to assert itself as a part of the aspirations of the new society in the process of construction.

This conflict is dramatically expressed in the development of the relationships between the three protagonists, each of whom represents a different degree of evolution within the social environment where they live. Yolanda is a girl [sic] who fully identifies with the revolutionary process, who is trying, not without difficulties, to bring changes in that world, to which she is attached by her work as well as by emotional ties. Mario is a man going through a stage of transition, torn between the perceptions and values originating from the world he was born in and those of the new reality, while, at the same time, he contributes enthusiastically to the construction of socialist society. Humberto, in turn, is the prototype of the alienated individual, a man who cannot, at least initially, adapt to the new norms of social conduct other than through coercion.

With the exception of Humberto, whose characterization is intentionally aimed at depicting a black-and-white prototype, the treatment given the other two protagonists enhances their personalities from a psychological point of view by reflecting their clashes with their environment and with each other. The film centers its attention mainly on Mario, following the course of his love relationship with Yolanda and his friendship with Humberto as two separate subjects. Mario's struggle with Yolanda and with himself and the attitude he adopts in regard to his friend reveal the crisis in his marginal values, some of which he is beginning to have no use for while still desperately clinging to others. His transformation involves tearing part of himself away, and this becomes evident in every step and concession that separates him further from the concepts he once upheld so firmly.

In order to reflect the objective reality of the environment it deals with, the film makes use of the documentary style, using forms of cinema verite, and, at other times, puts aside fiction with the evident purpose of informing and educating (as in its documentary analysis of the Afro-cuban obscurantist Abakua sect). The way in which the styles have been combined makes for an interruption of the story that is aimed at giving the spectator a chance to reflect upon what he has just seen.

One of the things that makes ONE WAY OR ANOTHER so convincing is its degree of authenticity in the presentation of real-life characters, who play themselves, as well as that of the actors. As to the former, the skillful work of the director has made it possible for their statements to spring forth spontaneously and for what there is of the pathetic in their individual stories to move the spectator deeply simply by the way it is expressed. As to the latter, their excellent performance in general makes for very effective characterization.

The solution to the conflicts dealt with in the film — just like the solution to any clash of ideas in the human mind — is not achieved either immediately or through drastic measures, because it has to be the result of the very development of the process of change that has brought about the conflict, of the gradual effects of that process, and, therefore, it entails a long struggle of conflicting emotions. This is why the film ends the way it does, offering, to all appearances, no evident results and yet revealing the solution in the discussion between the two young people as they walk between buildings built by the Revolution.

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER has contributed to one of the Cuban film industry's fundamental purposes, that is, to approach our present problems from a critical standpoint. The film achieves this both artistically and efficiently due to the talent of its director, the late Sara Gomez, whose sensitivity, intelligence and creative capacity are convincingly demonstrated in this, her only full-length film.

Notes:

CREDITS: Director: Sara Gomez. Script: Sara Gomez and Tomás Gonzalez. Cameraman: Luis García. Music: Sergio Vitier. Editing: Ivan Arocha. Sound: Germinal Hernández. Producer: Camilo Vives. Starring: Mario Balmaseda, Yolanda Cuellar and Mario Limonta

We have reprinted this review from Granma Weekly Review (English version), Havana, Nov. 20, 1977.

Sara Gomez was born in Havana in 1943. After finishing high school, she studied piano for six years at the Conservatory of Havana. She then worked as a journalist on the youth publication Mella and on the Sunday supplement Hoy Domingo. She began working at the Cuban Institute of Cinema Arts in 1961 as assistant director under Tomás Gutierrez Alea, Jorge Fraga and Agnes Varda. She died on June 2, 1974, as the result of an acute asthma attack.

Films directed by Sara Gomez:

Documentaries

• 1964 IRÉ A SANTIAGO (I WILL GO TO SANTIAGO)
• 1965 EXCURSIÓN A VUELTABAJO (EXCURSION TO VUELTABAJO)
• 1967 Y TENEMOS SABOR (WE'VE GOT RHYTHM)
• 1968 EN LA OTRA ISLA (ON THE OTHER ISLAND)
• 1969 ISLA DEL TESORO (TREASURE ISLAND)
• 1970 PODER LOCAL, PODER POPULAR (LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE'S POWER)
• 1971 UN DOCUMENTAL A PROPÓSITO DEL TRÁNSITO (A DOCUMENTARY ON TRAFFIC)
• 1972 ATENCIÓN PRENATAL (PRENATAL CARE)
• 1972 AÑO UNO (YEAR ONE)
• 1973 SOBRE HORAS EXTRAS Y TRABAJO VOLUNTARIO (ON OVERTIME AND VOLUNTARY WORK)

Feature Length

• 1974 DE CIERTA MANERA (ONE WAY OR ANOTHER)