The Task

It's a regular workday for an elderly Cuban guard, and there's not much going on. Sometimes he sits on a bench by the river, sometimes on a chair near the parking lot. Wherever he is, he spends his time watching passersby while schoolboys play in the trees above him. When a young filmmaker interrupts his routine, at first he doesn't want to reveal why he's working here. But gradually she attracts his interest, and soon the roles are reversed and he's the one who is observing and commenting. As he abandons his position and wanders out of view to interrogate her behind the camera, their encounter becomes a reflection on hierarchies within cinema and beyond, between youth and age, past and future. Their brief conversations have a philosophical undertone and expose the great generation gap in Cuba. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)