Evie Rosheger

After watching De Cierta Manera by Sara Gomez, I felt enlightened. The fiction/ nonfiction hybrid aspect to the film allowed me to further immerse myself into the realism portrayed in the film. Every character was allowed the space for complexity. I think something Sara was doing with this film was expressing her knowledge that the revolution was not done. It was not complete. She brings forth so many nuances that come with something like a revolution. The complexity of gender and culture, dancing on the line of erasing that culture for the sake of gender. The work here is not finished, is what I think Gomez is telling us. A relationship like Yolanda and Mario’s is a product of this half-baked revolution. A young woman, from an upper-class background involving herself in communism and teaching students while also dating a working-class man. I don’t see this as preformism on Yoland’s behalf, yet it does feel as though she is checking off boxes in terms of what a young revolutionary should do. And that is where we see the complexity of the characters shine through. The film reads overall as an encouragement for Cuba to strive for more.