THE PUPPETEER OF HAVANA

(El Titiritero de La Habana)

A Film by Wolf Hermsen of 113 minutes length
filmed in Havana/ Cuba with cuban actors including
Ramiro Ruiz Hernandez, Olga Lidia Alfonso, Luis Crespo



Synopsis

Roberto, a puppeteer from Havana, has a dream. He hopes that a festival manager, whom he met years before, invites him and his puppets to Oslo. His dream turns into an obsession and his family starts doubting his mental state. They don't know that Roberto owns another Set of puppets in an old ruinous shed in a Cuban backyard. He once prepared these puppets with the hair and blood of his deceased wife Olga to lend the puppet a stronger expression. Roberto thinks up bizarre scenes for the puppets that he plays secretly for himself. He fears that the magic he used might turn against himself and the puppets as soon as they leave the shed to which they stand in a mysterious relationship.

Roberto’s financial situation worsened dramatically since the theatre director Toni – formerly his best friend – fired him after he stole money drunk out of the cash register of the city theatre. Even when Roberto, once one of the main attractions of the theatre, clings to Tonis cycle rickshaw in the street of downtown Havana, Toni does not change his mind. Thus, nowadays Roberto seldomly plays and gets his wife Maria to keep him. Maria used to be a famous dancer who now earns her money as an assistant costume designer of a cabaret theatre. She is drawn to younger men and meets on the street Gerhard a German tourist. However, he ditches her for her pretty neighbour Yamila, the girl Roberto’s son Oscar fell in love with. Roberto does not get to know about all these things. Instead, he has a nightmare about a roller coaster in which a knife is about to cut Olga’s throat. He spreads a map of Norway on the kitchen table in front of Maria and reads aloud all Norwegian cities in order to “prove” that his dream of Norway is no flight of fancy.

Roberto regularly pays the porter of a hotel to send emails to the Norwegian. However, when he realizes that the emails were never sent, he disappointingly sells the "official" puppets to an antique dealer. Maria tries to get them back, but the dealer lies in telling her he left them with Gerhard, whom Maria seduced in the meantime. In reality the puppets hang in an adjoining room of the dealer. Maria visits Gerhard, but he is now with Yamila. Yamila found him a new place to live that belongs to her "cousin". Maria manages to search the new place, but notices that the puppets are not there.

She leaves Gerhard’s flat believing he hides the puppets somewhere else. In the meantime Oscar discovers Roberto’s practice stage and tackles him about it. Maria observes Gerhard while driving the old 51 Chevrolet of a Neighbour, hoping he will lead her to the puppets. Thereby she overruns him with the car in the dark. Yamila recognizes her......