Benedict Anderson in his notable book claims “nation” is constructed term because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each life the image of their communion. Since to some extent it is a constructed notion, the artificial fraternity has attempts to homogenizes sexual, ideological and gender diversities with inequality and exploitation. In the movies, “Strawberry and Chocolate” and “Offside”, are great examples which successfully demonstrate the resisting of the diversities to those attempts. In the first one, the main target is an intelligent homosexual man, and in the second one, the target is mainly women. Nevertheless, it should be on mind that the movies do not directly deal with sexual or gender diversities but wider intolerance in an imagined “homogeneous” community.
The Revolution we see in “Strawberry and Chocolate” succeed in humanizing the society to a very great extent by eliminating racism, extreme social or financial inequality, illiteracy, and substantially reducing some forms of sexism. However, the Revolution is not finished yet. Tomas Gutierrez Alea, the director of the film, in his interview with Michael Chanan expressed the film does not deal with the theme of intolerance in relation to homosexuals. He later continues: “Who, then, am I dialoguing with? Well, with the people, who, in one way or another, have to do with this situation, who are responsible for this situation, the intolerance, the ostracization of the person who is different, the non-acceptance of the person who thinks with his or her head.”
Mostly based on the characters’ patriotic ideals, nationalistic elements are seen all around the movie. When Cuba is the subject of the discussion they continuously call her as “island” which is ideal for imagining the nation within its natural borders. The comparisons among the nations are in the foreground while talking about music, culture, beverages such as Indian tea with French porcelain, enemy drink and so on. One the other hand, in “Offside” the sport has consolidative role and they all including the girls and the soldiers are united by Iran patriotism and desire to win for Iran in the football match.
In the movie “Strawberry and Chocolate” two main characters, Diego and David are patriotic in their own ways. The main distinction, however, is that the former has been excluded from participation in the Revolution. Despite the fact that he has often been reviewed as counterrevolutionary he has only labeled as in this way just because of the other’s prejudices: “the man is unfaithful even to his own sex” says Miguel, one of the self-appointed “defenders of the Revolution”. On the contrary, the David is seen as revolutionary and becomes more revolutionary through the entire movie. The nuance is that different from those who have prejudices against Diego, David by knowing diversity of self-expression goes beyond the limits the society imposed. In one of the dialogues Diego emotionally tells David: “I am part of this country. Like it or not!”
These constructed limits are often transcended by the heterogeneity. To elaborate the argument by giving examples, Diego because of free-thinking which actually comes from the restraints by the society to his sexual preferences seem to be as counterrevolutionary. Another great example to this limitation is the movie, “Offside”. The name of the film also demonstrates crossing an invisible line that is prohibited by the rules of the game. This symbolizes the women trying to pass on football stadium which is considered as men’s territory.
Taking all these into consideration, both movies that represent two heterogeneous societies in which radical revolutions has been taken the characters are not against the current regime. In his interview, Tomas Gutierrez Alea confesses that he had been in a position to live much better outside of Cuba. He believes that in Cuba, values exist that do not exist in other places. They all are about tolerance for constructive criticism, unusual lifestyles, and religious expression.
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