Strawberry and Chocolate

Set in Havana in 1979, Strawberry and Chocolate centres on David, a committed young communist and sociology student, and Diego, a gay artist and writer whose views put him at odds with the Cuban system. David is tasked with getting close to Diego in order to keep an eye on him, and the two men could hardly be more different. Yet as they spend time together and argue about politics, art and the freedom to be oneself, an unlikely friendship takes shape between them.

The film was directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, working with Juan Carlos Tabío, and it followed his Death of a Bureaucrat from 1966 in his filmography. Senel Paz wrote the screenplay. Jorge Perugorría plays Diego, Vladimir Cruz plays David, and the cast also includes Mirta Ibarra, Francisco Gattorno, Joel Angelino and Marilyn Solaya. A co-production between Spain, Cuba and Mexico, it took about 2 million dollars at the worldwide box office, a solid return for a Cuban drama of its kind.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.4 from around 6,300 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of 86 votes. The two scores sit reasonably close together, and the wider sample on IMDb points to a film with a durable reputation among viewers.