"Actor: Mirta Ibarra"

• Strawberry & Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) by Alea | DVD | (23/02/2009) from £12.69   |  Saving you £0.30 (2.36%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Groundbreaking and hugely celebrated for numerous reasons Cuba's greatest director Thomas Guiterrez Alea's (Memories Of Underdevlopment) Strawberry And Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) was the first Cuban film ever to receive an Academy Award nomination thanks to its revelatory plot masterful direction and phenomenally crafted performances. Diego a cultivated apolitical sceptical young artist living in Havana initiates a friendship with fiercely communist homophobe David with the intention of seducing him. David knowing this allows the relationship to build so he can spy on a person he sees as aberrant and dangerous to the communist cause. Despite their conflicting sexualities and political ideologies the two slowly build a relationship out of their differences proving that camaraderie and friendship can overcome the most divisive superficialities. An exploration into the seduction of the mind Strawberry And Chocolate shows how politics can shape lives opinions and relationships. Hugely controversial in Cuba even now the film was the first to feature a gay man as the hero while openly criticising the Government and its widespread intolerance. It was this picture that started the dialogue that has only last year allowed Brokeback Mountain to be shown in Havana. Charming nuanced groundbreaking and thought provoking Strawberry And Chocolate is a clear-cut declaration that even in spite of politics love for your fellow man will always triumph if allowed to.

• The Last Match | DVD | (28/07/2014) from £8.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (43.80%)   |  RRP £15.99

• The Last Match | DVD | (28/07/2014) from £8.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Direct from its gala sold out premiere at the London Flare Festival The Last Match is an uncompromising and rare look at what happens when two boys fall in love against the backdrop of a repressive Cuban society. Reinier is a sexy rent boy working nights on the beat to make ends meet and spending his days on the soccer field. It is on the field where he meets and falls in love with Yovsani. Both are already in relationships with women and so develop an intense connection in secret. But as feelings get stronger so to do the obstacles threatening to tear them apart. A brilliantly evocative and emotional film The Last Match is not to be missed.