'Sin Alas,' the second feature from Ben Chace is a small, gutsy, success of an independent film, but it would still be notable if it were a failure. It's the first film made by an American director in Cuba in more than 50 years. As he did when shooting his 2009 debut 'Wah Do Dem,' Chace immersed himself in a sequestered Caribbean capital after visiting and becoming enamored. This time, he swaps gritty Kingston for a dreamily rendered Centro Habana. The film follows Luis, a dour septuagenarian who, through a series of fortuitous episodes, flashbacks and magical-realist convolutions, finally reconciles an ill-fated affair he had 45 years prior with a married dancer (the dazzling Yulisleyvís Rodriguez). The plot is purposefully knotty, interweaving scenes from three distinct eras with peripheral plot threads, passages of stately poetry and naturalistic segments that border on documentary. Chace does an admirable job of centering the film on the tragic love story, and of juggling the various cultural and literary pretexts that inform his film. Proustian memory swells, familial histories, lingering specters of the Cuban revolution and old-fashioned ethnographic curiosity are deftly, and tastefully balanced. Still, the heart and star of the film is Cuba, with its immense beauty and spirited denizens. The vistas (shot in stunning 16mm) and the innate musicality of Havana are regarded with a wonderment that recalls Marcel Camus' 'Black Orpheus,' a close cinematic ancestor. The film’s biggest drawback, aside from an anthropological gaze that the viewer is never not aware of, is the overall stiltedness of the Spanish dialogue. Like poetry in translation, the scripting seems to be a half-beat behind, and cannot quite keep step with the vibrant visuals.
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