Papa Hemingway in Cuba chronicles the last years of iconic writer Ernest Hemingway. Set in Cuba in the 1950s, it stars Adrian Sparks (The Purge: Anarchy) as Hemingway, Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar) as Ed Myers a Miami journalist interviewing him, Minka Kelly (500 Days of Summer) as Debbie Hunt and Joely Richardson (The Patriot) as Mary Hemingway.
Talking to Melanie Votaw for Reel Life with Jane, Adrian Sparks discussed his first exposure to Hemingway: “At 16, my father giving me a copy of “For Whom The Bell Tolls”” and credits Hemingway with “guiding me through puberty”. He also mentioned that one of the aspects of Cuba Hemingway liked was “the lack of artifice”. Sparks concluded the interview by calling Cuba, “a stunning country.”
Writing for Time, Eliza Berman mentions “it’s been more than half a century since a Hollywood movie was filmed in Cuba” and talks about how the geopolitics of American-Cuban relations actually lent the aesthetics of the film a measure of temporal authenticity — “Because the embargo restricted the import of American goods to the island, much of the country has maintained the appearance of being somewhat stuck in time–not the least of all thanks to its 1950s-model cars.”
Maria Garcia reviewed the film for Biography, writing, “Papa is photographed in vibrant color, and is replete with historical locations”. She mentions the director Bob Yari speaking to Biography in April and saying, “I really wanted to show Hemingway’s true self, something that I don’t think we’ve seen before, which is the darkness he struggled with”.
The film was released on April 29. You can see the trailer below.
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