Nada+

Posted to www.marxmail.org on January 24, 2006

“Nada+” (Nothing More) is the latest in a series of Cuban films such as “Strawberries and Chocolate” and “The Waiting List” that satirize bureaucracy. These films are the most effective rebuttal to claims in both the conservative and liberal press that Cuba is a totalitarian dungeon. Indeed, “Nada+” is irrefutable evidence that the main challenge to bureaucratic stupidity and oppression comes from the government itself, since without government funding such films would never see the light of day.

What better symbol of bureaucracy is there than the post office, which serves as the setting for “Nada+.” Carla Perez (Thäis Valdés) is a young, beautiful and supremely bored clerk who spends each day rubberstamping incoming mail while listening to music on a portable radio at her desk.

To relieve the tedium, she has begun to steal letters in order to get into the lives of the writers, who function as characters in soap operas for her. Taking things one step further, she begins to write back letters to the sender in the name of the original recipient. But her letters are more compassionate, more loving and more sensitive than anything that they would be capable of, with an impact that is often highly dramatic.

One of the unsuspecting recipients is a Cuban equivalent of Doctor Phil, who has an afternoon talk show proffering advice to the unhappy, but he himself is far more tormented than any of his callers. He throws a tantrum one day at Carla’s office when no letters are found in his mailbox, accusing the workers of stealing his mail. In this instance, however, Carla had nothing to do with it. Taking pity on him, she decides to write him a fan letter assuming the identity of one of his viewers. So deeply moved is he by her words that he confesses to his audience that he has been living a lie, tears off his toupee and attempts to strangle himself with a microphone cord!

Carla’s nemesis is Cunda (Daisy Granados), a glowering and humorless manager in her middle ages who has been sent into the postal station to impose order and discipline on an anarchic workforce that is suspected of stealing stamps and office supplies. Eventually Cunda gets wind of the fact that Carla has been pilfering mail and is determined to catch her in the act.

Carla would be all too happy to put this behind her. Her parents have moved to Miami and she is awaiting a visa that would allow her to join up with them. The only incentive for her to remain in Cuba is a relationship she has developed with César (Nacho Lugo), a young mail carrier who has begun to pass letters on to her even though it jeopardizes his own career–such as it is. He is far more interested in listening to hard rock on his Walkman than anything else. Carla and César would appear to represent the hopes and frustrations of ordinary Cubans who remain indifferent to socialist propaganda, especially when it comes out of the mouth of a snoop like Cunda. Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say that love conquers all.

While fascinating as a document of how Cubans live today, “Nada+” is even more valuable as pure entertainment. Director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti has incorporated elements of British director Richard Lester’s work, especially “Hard Day’s Night”. Like Lester, Malberti has reintroduced elements of classic silent comedy. Many scenes in “Nada+” look like they came from a Charlie Chaplin movie. Malberti also has introduced a clever cinematographic technique. While the film is nearly entirely in black and white, he occasionally introduce a colored animated object into the scene, like a butterfly or a rainbow.

For Marxists, the postal service will always be thought of in two ways. On one hand it was for Lenin a symbol of socialism’s potential. In chapter five of “State and Revolution,” Lenin wrote:

The development of capitalism, in turn, creates the preconditions that enable really “all” to take part in the administration of the state. Some of these preconditions are: universal literacy, which has already been achieved in a number of the most advanced capitalist countries, then the “training and disciplining” of millions of workers by the huge, complex, socialized apparatus of the postal service, railways, big factories, large-scale commerce, banking, etc., etc.

On the other hand, it has become a symbol of bureaucratic oppression, especially when workers are subject to speedup as is the case in capitalist countries. “Going postal” has become part of the vocabulary in the USA as enraged workers come to work and gun down supervisors. Whatever boredom and alienation Carla and César face, it is a leisurely one as is generally the case in Cuba today.

“Nada+” is available at your better video stores and on the Internet. It is a must for anybody trying to understand Cuban society while enjoying belly laughs at the same time.