Before Night Falls

The life of Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), novelist and Cuban poet exiled in the U.S., is portrayed in a masterly fashion by director Julian Schnabel The script, based on an autobiography of the same name, published posthumously in 1993, highlights the terrible contrast between a childhood in absolute freedom with a family in the country and adult life, censored and hunted down by the Fidel Castro government for being a writer and a homosexual. At the age of 14, Reinaldo Arenas was taken away from his family to be brought up by the Cuban revolutionary government. At the age of 20, he published his first novel, "Celestino Antes del Alba", that won a national award. This was the only work he managed to publish in his country. In 1973, Reinaldo was arrested, his work confiscated, and he was taken to the El Morro prison where he remained for two years among common criminals and survived, writing letters to the wives and mistresses of his cell mates. In May, 1980, Castro permitted every homosexual, mentally ill person, or individual with a police record to leave Cuba, which meant that 250 000 Cubans fled the country. Reinaldo was among these. In the U.S., the writer did not find the paradise he hoped for. Winner of the prize for Best Actor at the Venice/2000 Festival, to Javier Bardem for his work with Reinaldo Arenas, and also the Special Prizer of the Jury.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA