Hello Hemingway

Hello Hemingway is a 1990 Cuban drama film directed by Fernando Prez and starring Laura de la Uz. The plot, set in Havana in the last period of Fulgencio Batistas dictatorship, follows a young girl whose aspirations to obtain a scholarship in America, against the odds, are paralleled with her reading of Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. The film was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

On a visit to a bookshop, she is given a copy of Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea, which she stars to read avidly, drawing parallels between the novel and her own life which she confines to her diary. At home, her family tease her about her academic aspirations, but it is also becomes clear that they resent the fact that while they work hard she studies and contributes nothing to their meager existence. The issue of finances is made more accurate when Larita is sent home because she is not wearing the correct school uniform. However, she passes the first round of scholarship exams and is invited to a reception for the finalist, trying to make herself as presentable as possible with the help of her relatives sewing skills. She tells Victor that she is in the scholarship short list, which makes him angry since politically America represents everything he despises. That night Larita returns home to find that her uncle has been fired.At the scholarship interview, it is implied that her chances of a place are severely hampered by the fact that she is illegitimate and does not have the right social connections. In desperation, Larita decides to visit Hemingway to see if he will write a reference for her, but it turns out that he is away. Larita bitterly blames her mother for the fact that she is in disadvantage by poverty and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, at school, the student protest are becoming more frequent, culminating one afternoon in Victors arrests. ........

Source: Wikipedia