Un Traductor

Based on a true-life experience of the father of sibling co-directors Rodrigo and Sebastián Barriuso, Un Traductor is a powerful story set in Cuba, circa 1989. Following a Havana visit from the Soviet Union’s then-leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Cuban government pulls Malin (Rodrigo Santoro)—a professor of Russian literature still working on his doctoral thesis—from his university faculty position, reassigning him to a children’s hospital, where he is expected to serve as a translator for Russian kids being treated for diseases linked to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Woefully unprepared either emotionally or instinctively to be a crucial link between medical staff and dying kids, Malin is initially resistant to this task that takes its toll on his life and well-being. In time, however, he ends up at the other extreme: far too attached to the children’s tragedy and estranged from his artist wife and young son. An Argentine nurse (Maricel Alvarez) alternately chides and comforts Malin, who wallows in perpetual grief. Also featuring Nikita Semenov as a dying boy, and Genadijs Dolganovs as the latter’s father, this visually compelling film alternates between tropical beauty and antiseptic starkness. It is also rich in detail about the Cuban middle-class, which is routinely buffeted by forces beyond their control: food shortages, gas shortages, government whims. In a particularly memorable moment, Malin’s wife, an artist who has spent months organizing a gallery exhibition, watches helplessly as a crowd of opening night invitees are more interested in filling hungry bellies at a refreshment table than looking at paintings. Recommended. (T. Keogh)