7 Days in Havana (Julio Médem, Laurent Cantet, Juan Carlos Tabío, Benicio del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Pablo Trapero & Elia Suleiman, 2012)

A loosely-linked anthology film with a multinational band of directors, each taking a day-long segment, 7 Days in Havana has all the usual failings and virtues of the form, the uneven quality promising an improvement after a duff segment and conversely a deterioration after a stronger one, even though in this case the screenplay comes from a single local writer. As a common denominator, it would be fair to say that a fair degree of appreciation of Cuban music and of the vivacity against adversity of the Cuban people are prerequisites for a sympathetic response.
The stand-out episode here is the furthest from conventional narrative, with Elia Suleiman directing and starring as a silent Middle Eastern observer walking around Havana simply looking at things in detail, to some telling and wryly humorous effect, while Laurent Cantet's end piece on the penniless residents of an apartment building banding together to build a shrine overnight is also of human interest. Conversely, Julio Médem's contribution is a soap and Gaspar Noé's voodoo ritual nightmare exactly as tiresome as you'd expect of him. The rest is filler.

5/10