Karim Dridi: Cuba Feliz

Karim Dridi's Cuba Feliz (2000) gives us a zen musical tale set in Cuba with no overarching narration. We follow El Gallo (The Rooster), Miguel Del Morales, as he visits friends, acquaintances and peers. There is a lot of music and ambience, shot with a single camera and therefore often times carefully constructed. I felt transported after a while into a sort of astral plane of Salsa Blues.

Stuff happens besides singing and playing musical instruments. El Gallo walks, takes trains, gets lifts, sleeps, is awakened by musicians, observes people -- including an older gent doing yoga-like stretches -- and so on. A guitar is handcrafted for him, and he later plays it. Folks of all ages participate in the action -- like a one room schoolhouse for music and culture, with El Gallo moving along to different towns and cities. At one point, a beginning rapper is advised wisely: "First, you have to learn how to listen." 

There's also the beauty and decay of Cuban architecture, the classic cars and the nearby ocean, and even a brief early display of twerking (this in the late 1990s) with a more luxurious consideration of proto-salsa Changüí. 

And that's not all. Pictured here is a scene you might expect from a Werner Herzog film (documentary or otherwise). El Gallo appears to be receiving some sort of blessing in a little chapel-like space in what seems to be Santería, a syncretic mix of Catholicism and Yorùbá religion. Yes, the woman giving the blessings is balancing holy water on her head.

Post script. Because of his moniker, El Gallo / The Rooster reminds me of another troubadour, Curtis "Rooster" Wheeler, last seen playing "Katrina Blues" in New Orleans. More on the latter here.

Today's Rune: Signals.