This movie tells the story of Candelaria and Victor Hugo, an older couple in Havana. They live in the times of one of the biggest crisis in Cuba where food is scarce and they have to raise chickens illegally to eat. One day Candelaria finds a video camera which is a luxury for Cubans and takes it home. Victor Hugo starts using the camera to record moments with Candelaria. This leads to a money lender seeing an opportunity that Victor Hugo and Candelaria are embarrassed to take.

The movie is nice and quite funny, the characters are cute in their relationship and it shows how even in very bad poverty, happiness can be found.

Elderly people have a fame of being mis- and under-represented in media. Often times just wise, comforting figures to younger protagonists, they are hardly at the center of the stories. "Candelaria" challenges that by not only being very clearly protagonized by an elderly couple, but showing them as complete characters too. Despite their age and wisdom, they still make mistakes, lie, lust and altogether, LIVE.

The title character is part of the laundry staff in a Havana tourist hotel and she lives in a typically Habanero apartment (kind of falling apart) with her husband Victor Hugo, and their illegally-obtained chickens, during Cuba's "special period" in the 1990s (when the U.S.-led economic blockade on the country tightened and food became scarcer). After a guest at the hotel misplaces his camcorder and it happens upon Candelaria's hands, who takes it home, its novelty eventually leads to her and Victor Hugo rediscovering each other and their relationship.

The character flaws and their decisions work explicitly to make them more human, relatable and likable. As their chemistry rekindles, Victor Hugo finds himself in touch with a European expat in Cuba who "milks the crisis", letting cash-short Cubans come to him desperate to sells possessions for dollars. In Victor Hugo's case, his private video recordings with Candelaria are what the black market dealer is interested in. The absurdity of Victor Hugo and Candelaria finding themselves as somewhat unwilling porn actors at their age is played somewhat for humor, but with an underlying current of dignity and respect.

Unfortunately this and other plot trends in the movie don't get developed or resolved that much, making this a mostly pleasing and original mood piece than a plotted narrative. The voyeuristic commentary is meta, with Victor and Candelaria's videos, as well as the movie itself being almost slice-of-life, resulting in an interesting portrayal of an under-represented demographic, aided by a fair amount of Cuban flavor and flair for life.

"Candelaria" is a new movie that premiered in 2017 and was written and directed by Jhonny Hendrix. it is setg in Cuba, 2 deacdes back, or slightly more, and so it is not surprising that Cuba is also one of the production countries of this relatively short film that stays under the 90-minute mark. The title may be Candelaria, but to me the central character was her husband, played impressively in his very first performance by Alden Knigth. I would also say that he is more in the center of it all compared to his wife. Maybe they went for the title instead because Candela is the cleaner character with less flaws, but to me this is more of a reason against her putting in the center of it all, even if his actions are always somewhat related to her, the chicks, the illness, the erotical aspect etc. Anyway, hige thumbs-up for Knigth. As for the story, i was not always convinced. The way they brought in the camera to revive their sleeping romantic and sexual relationship did not feel entirely believable to me in the sense that this is a story that could actually have happened in real life too. It is a bit of a pity as authenticity is really among the most crucial components this film has to offer and it feels so right in terms of realism on many occasions, occasions that are not part of the film's core, so a bit of a shame they did not entirely (or at all, I could say) hit the spot there. The part with the porn is very bizarre and I struggled there too with realism, not necessarily with the two initially agreeing to participate, but then suddenly opposing the idea at the very end. A bit abrupt if you ask me. and besides, is there really a market for senior porn in Cuba or abroad and does this shady businessman actually have access to said niche? And know he does in advance as it is really all his idea. Anyway, lets not lose focus in terms of the better parts of the film. I liked the one with the watch, the dinner scenes felt sometimes fine, sometimes a bit staged. Overall, I wish the film could have delivered a bit more on the love relationship between the two. This would have made the cancer and also especially the very final shot even more effective and I totally would have adored it even more with how much I liked the central character and his performance. There are references about the political climate back then in the 1990s in Cuba. Boy I am talking about this as if it is from another age. How time has passed. Anyway, we have the radio broadcasts and we have the references about starvation for the people. It's an okay background, but it never should be seen as a political film and it never aspires to be one. It is a relationship drama with some extremely subtle humor and some pretty sweet scenes too at times. I would not call it a comedy. For that the "fun" part is just too insignificant. It's a mix of character study and romance film I would say all in all. And a fairly good one at that. Had they been able to take care of some of the core flaws here, then it even could have been a fairly great movie. Not a must see for Cuba lovers or anyone else, but a decent watch for everybody above the age of 21 I guess. So yeah go check it out. i thought early on it needed a bit to get going and catch my interest, but at some point it will drag you in, hopefully a bit sooner for you than for me. So I give it a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation. Worth 1.5 hours for sure.