BEHAVIOR

• Alina Rodríguez

  Armando Valdés Freire

  Silvia Águila

  Yuliet Cruz

Awarded prizes at numerous festivals (Huelva, Havana, Bogota, and Portland), this third feature film by Cuban director Ernesto Daranas is a harsh social drama about an eleven-year-old boy with an alcoholic and drug-addicted mother, immersed in a world of violence where he trains fighting dogs to support his family. Conflictive and marginalized, the boy only finds comfort and relief in his teacher, a woman with whom he shares a very special bond. With a classic structure and powerful images, this is a stimulating movie with a message that inspires hope.

Chala is eleven years old and lives alone with his drug addict mother. He trains fighting dogs for a living, and this world of violence sometimes surfaces when he is at school. Carmela is his sixth grade teacher, for whom the boy feels affection and respect. One day she becomes ill and musts give up the school for several months. The new teacher, unable to understand Chala’s behavior, sends him off to a reeducation school. When Carmela returns, she rebels against this measure and other transformations her class has been subjected to. The relationship between the veteran teacher and the boy grows stronger, but this mutual commitment will jeopardize their continuance at the school.