euroGary 'Seven (or if you prefer, '7') Days in Havana' is a series of little filmettes, each by one of seven directors, set in Havana. At first it seems the connecting thread between the segments is foreigners: a US student dates a drag artist, a Serbian film director attends a film festival, a Palestinian man waits to see the President... but the later segments concentrate on Cubans: a young woman caught in a lesbian relationship is forced to undergo a cleansing ritual; an old woman bullies her neighbours into building a fountain for the Virgin Mary in her living room... The quality is variable (I nodded off during the lesbian one, which really drags; but found the fountain in the living room segment with its colourful characters and lively storyline most enjoyable), but in the main I enjoyed the total package. How accurate a portrayal of modern-day Cuba it is I don't know, though.

jjr4 but in the "night on earth" earth meets "buena vista social club", it still holds its own. So why the bad critics and why see it still? Bad critics: guess what! you bring seven directors together, some well known even if only in their country, some with a lesser reputation, and they deliver uneven results! What???? Yes del toro or cantet get away with more formal takes on life in habana, but they have a lightness of tone which carry the story through. But all in all these snapshots won't bring anything new to anyone having spent a longer than tourist week package in havana, they will bring amused recollections to those who did enjoy the package, and will show the potential explorers why it's worth going there. And for those who don't care about tourism, well it has the nice feel of those sixties and seventies sketches and shorts genre movies i personally so enjoyed.

pedrokolari This movie has gotten overall bad reviews. It is in fact uneven, as you might expect from 7 directors handling 7 segments to some extent intermingled.If you don't understand enough Spanish to follow the Cuban dialog, I am sure a lot gets lost in translation. Others complain the film tells them nothing new.From my perspective, with some familiarity with Cuban culture, down to the iconic Hotel Nacional featured in the film (where I stayed for 3 mights in 2011), I can only say that I may have learned little that is new but through most of the film, the vibrancy, the music, the sensuality, the sheer joy and pain of the Cuban experience shone through and it touched my soul.

spaceman88 I will keep this review short and spoiler-free."7 Days In Havana" is a compilation of seven short stories, each with it's own director and character(s). The first two "days" seemed to be taking the film in the right direction, but after that everything fell apart. Some elements try to bridge together some of the "days", but the whole structure of the storytelling ends up being an inconsistent mess. I thought that all the cliché representations of Cuba would be lacking, but "7 days in Havana" gives almost nothing new. A wasted Saturday night for a movie I would not re-watch.