Film-Video-TV

New film about Hemingway in Cuba

By hola | Published April 27, 2016 | No Comments

“Papa: Hemingway in Cuba” is the first Hollywood movie filmed in Cuba since 1959. Shot in 2014 and opening in movie theaters around the country this week, it tells the story of the real-life friendship between Miami-based journalist Denne Bart Petitclerc, re-named Ed Lynch for the movie (Giovanni Ribisi), and Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks) during the start of the Cuban revolution and overthrow of Batista’s regime in the late 1950s.

Directed by Bob Yari, who has produced such Oscar-winning films as “Crash” and “The Illusionist”, this drama depicts the strong bond that grew between the great American writer and the Miami reporter, as well as the effects of politics on the life of the Hemingway, and his struggles as a human-being and writer.

During his time in Cuba, Hemingway was already a celebrity. One of the most famous American writers, Hemingway was also beloved in Cuba, where he had a home for many years before his death by suicide in 1961. He was seen as a paternal figure.  Most people called him Papa.

As the production of this film demonstrate, Hemingway could be perceived as a cultural bridge between the two nations, which only adds to the symbolism of this film as the first Hollywood production shot in Cuba in a while. The authentic Cuban setting captures the essence of the island; its capital city, Havana; and Hemingway’s finca (or farm), where scenes were filmed.

Giovanni Ribisi plays a reporter who writes a letter to his idol. Hemingway responds, inviting him to go fishing with him in Cuba. In their first encounter, the white bearded Hemingway appears in a low-angle shot in his Cuban tropical paradise against a background clear water and blue skies. Eventually Hemingway becomes a paternal figure for Ed Lynch too. They develop a strong bond. Hemingway teaches Ed about life; and in the process mentors him in his career as a writer. Hemingway also exposes his mentee to the political upheaval underway at the time in Cuba, taking him to see Fidel Castro as Castro and his leftist guerrillas sweep into Havana in the late ’50s. It is through Ed Lynch’s perspective that we see Hemingway as he struggles with the effects of politics, particularly his relationship with the U.S. government.

J. Edgar Hoover, then the famously anti-communist director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was suspicious of Hemingway’s activities in Cuba, and had Hemingway kept under surveillance. In response to a Freedom of Information petition decades later, the F.B.I. released its file on Hemingway. The film shows that Hemingway was well-aware he was being spied on, which made him distrustful and paranoid according to close friends and his wife, Mary (Joely Richardson). The hounding by the U. S. government soon takes its toll. He starts displaying a violent side. His distrust in his surroundings almost cost him his friendship with Ed Lynch. At one point, Hemingway is forced to throw his firearms into the sea after the F.B.I. inspects his fishing boat.

As their friendship progresses, Ed Lynch is exposed to the different facets of the famous American author’s personality; including a side of him that most people never got to see. Through Hemingway’s interaction with and observations, we see him in a different light than his public persona as a prize-winning novelist and one of the most romanticized and iconic figures of 20th century American fiction.  Rather than a strapping adventurer on safari in Africa or reporting from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, as he is best remembered, the Hemingway in the film is a debilitated character struggling with alcohol, depression, and anger. We see a Hemingway who contemplates suicide and who struggles with his writing in the last years of his career. We see his human side.

“Papa: Hemingway in Cuba” opens in movie theaters April 29th.

—Estefani Flores

Recent Stories