Life Is to Whistle

This philosophical, gently magical movie tells of the lives of three Cubans - a nurse to the elderly Julia, 'bum' Elpidio and ballet dancer Mariana - all in the throes of emotional change. It's narrated by 20-year-old Bebe (whom we see in various places: in flashback as a child at the same orphanage as the three principals; burbling words from inside an aquarium). Like a benign Greek god, he oversees the struggles of the others, using a taxi driver to ferry them about Havana in order to accelerate their fates. It's an affirmative movie in a 'seize the day' mould, which sighs at, rather than attacks, Cuba's unfinished revolution.