“Turn Left” in Post Production

My second Cuba project is slowly coming to fruition!

My work in progress participatory documentary with the working title of “Turn Left” is in the editing phase. The doc is revolving around myself trying to communicate with two Cubans as they drive me across the country to show me the list of places that I asked them to go. The short is my second project shot in Cuba after “Magdalena” which I wrote, shot and edited as my first workshop product.

Things that makes this doc interesting from the beginning (Or at least that’s what I was told by some early viewers) are the language barriers that doesn’t allow a decent mutual conversation, a cool old red car, constantly being lost and found in the process of the trip and the genuine settings of Cuba of course. The two Cubans in the car also symbolize the old and new generations of this country as the car that we travel with is a representation of Cuba, an old classic car in red that moves on with directions of the older man in the back seat constantly yelling: “Left!…To the left!” while the younger man is in the driving seat.

It is worth noting that upon watching the first draft in Cuba, Kiarostami excitedly commented “I like the form of this film. You were able to create a very unique atmosphere incorporating yourself in the context of an every day life in Cuba with a bunch of cameras and that by itself works great here” (Give me one good reason not to be in the seventh heaven when he was telling me these!)