Strawberry & Chocolate.

"Strawberry & Chocolate" was directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio. It is a Cuban-Spanish-Mexican film and based on the short story "The Wolf, The Forest, and the New Man." I thought the title of the movie was interesting in reference to the quote used in the film - "I knew he was homosexual because they had chocolate ice cream, and yet he ordered strawberry." The movie takes place in the late 1970's in Cuba where a college student by the name of David randomly meets a gay artist by the name of Diego. David goes through a few struggles, in which we see from the beginning of the film where he loses the love his life to someone else. He also has a tough time in Cuba. Diego is unsatisfied with Castro regime's outlook towards the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community. After David's homophobic friend/roommate, Miguel, hears about David's encounter with the gay man Diego, Miguel decides that Diego can be used as a spy on dangerous events occuring by the Cuban communists. After some time, a friendship begins to develop between David and Diego. Diego becomes a mentor and teaches David about life from another angle that can enhance David's perspective on things.

Although there were a few themes,I believe that the biggest one worth mentioning is the existence of the LGBT community. Diego heavily flirts with David in the beginning of the film, borderline seducing him, but it dies down. Diego has a new-found motivation that does not include seduction, but trying to change the outlook of those who are close minded or uneducated on subjects.

My reaction towards the film is a positive one. I do not believe it was a bad film because of the strong message it portrayed, the production, and the craft of acting performed by the main characters. I thought that Diego was so entertaining to watch in the beginning of the film because of his charisma and enthusiasm. I found Diego to be very animated during certain scenes. The foul languages/slang used to refer to homosexual people was a bit uncomfortable for me to hear, because they are words that are not in my vocabulary. Overall, the film was a great one.