Alice in Wondertown

Alice in Wondertown (original title in Spanish: Alicia en el pueblo de Maravillas) is a 1991 film directed by Daniel Díaz Torres. It was film of satire, absurdity and horror, seen as a criticism of the problems of Cuban society, which caused a significant controversy in the country.^[1] Cinema critic Juan Antonio García Borrero has been planning to include it in a book under a tentative title Diez películas que estremecieron a Cuba (Ten Films That Shook Cuba) ^[2]

Plot

Superficially, the film is framed as a murder mystery. While hitching a ride in a back of a puckup truck full of workers, Alice is attacked by a strange cloaked person. She pushes him to fall overboard while the truck is crossing a high bridge, and she is accused of murder. However the body mysteriously disappears, she is relieved of murder charges, and she narrates her story, presented as a flashback in the film. Her adventure starts when she is delegated to a small town of Maravillas ("Wondertown"; maravilla=wonder). While the title is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland, it is not an adaptation of the English book. ^[3] There are a number of allusions and parallels, but they are difficult to recognize to people who did not live in Cuba at this time period. In fact, Juan Borrero mentioned that a young Cuban born the year the film was cast told him that he could not understand why the film caused such a controversy.^[2]

The major characters of the film, a school teacher, black market traders, lazy service providers, disgraced priest, etc., are exiled to this town for their violations, and are forced into a submission by a supernatural city mayor. Only after Alice matures and stops blindly believing in the authorities, he manages to return to her real world. ^[4]

References