FRESA Y CHOCOLATE POSTER

Fresa y Chocolate is the title of a 1993 Cuban movie directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio. While the title refers to ice cream flavors – strawberry (fresa) and chocolate - the movie is not about ice cream.  Rather, it’s about a friendship between a straight Cuban man who believes in the Cuban state and all that it stands for and a gay counter-revolutionary writer opposed to Castro’s government, whose very existence is a criticism of this society.

The movie title arises from the men’s first encounter, when the gay man purchases strawberry ice cream at a café, instead of the much more popular chocolate, and comments that soon strawberry ice cream will no longer be available due to government policy. 

The pink strawberry ice cream on the poster stands as a metaphor for homosexuality and creativity and the chocolate for a life controlled by the state. Not surprisingly (after all this poster was designed under the auspices of the ICAIC, the state-run organization formed after the revolution to promote Cuban films), the strawberry ice cream cone is leaning against the chocolate one and collapsing as it melts. The chocolate one is standing upright and showing no signs of distress.

This hand-printed silkscreen poster is one of several posters done for this movie; Hubert Delestre is said to have been the designer for this poster.

Check out the other Cuban movie posters that we offer on our website.

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