By Staff
special to The Star
Nov. 13, 2003
Want to see a free movie in a theater where you can bring your own popcorn?
The Meridian World Cinema Festival's final free movie of the year, "Guantanamera," will be shown Friday at 7 p.m. in Kahlmus Auditorium at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus.
In the story, Yoyita is a famous singer who returns to the town of Guantanamo for a celebration in her honor. Reunited with her childhood lover Candido (Raul Eguren) after 50 years, she dies in his arms from overstimulation.
The farce of returning her body to Havana for proper burial provides the vehicle for an easygoing, yet incisive, overview of contemporary Cuba and a lighthearted admonishment to live for the moment.
Yoyita's niece, Gina, a former professor of economics, and her tyrannical husband, the undertaker for the remote province, make up the procession, along with the forlorn Candido.
As the cortege makes its way toward the capital, Gina is given a second chance at love with a hunky truck driver while the audience becomes familiar with the clandestine restaurants, abject road stops, and endless slogans that populate the hitherto underexposed Cuban countryside.
The film festival will resume in January and February, with four more free films that are yet to be announced.
The Meridian World Cinema Festival is made possible by the MSU-Meridian Campus Division of Arts and Sciences and the Mississippi Humanities Council.
For more information, call 484-0140 or 484-0100.