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A couple of days ago I watched a movie that left me deeply disappointed. Based on Brazilian writer Fernando Morais' book called The Last Soldiers on the Cold War, Wasp Network, directed by Olivier Assayas, plays as an apologia to authoritarian regimes.

You can watch the trailer here:

I must confess that I watched the movie because Venezuelan actor, Edgar Ramírez was in it, and without having read much about it or having even watched the trailer. Now I wonder why Ramirez accepted that role. After having played Venezuelan terrorist, Ilich Ramirez (Carlos el Chacal), in the critically acclaimed mini-series, Carlos (2010), also directed by Olivier Assayas, I was already concerned that he would be attracted to impersonating controversial figures, thus giving them some PR oxygen with his fresh popularity and reputation. He joins Gael Garcia Bernal, who had already oxigenated another controversial figure, Ernesto Ché Guevara, in Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and proudly naively supported Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the Mexican presidency.

I criticize censorship, therefore I cannot say the movie should not have been made or this side of the story should not have been told. I just can't process that one of the most promising Venezuelan actors, who has expressed in the past his criticism to OUR dictatorial regime, decides to make a movie where the Cuban dictatorship is portrayed as the victim of a historical harassment that somehow justifies all their atrocities.

Edgar Ramírez plays René Gonzalez, one of the Cuban spies convicted in the USA as part of the spy network that infiltrated Cuban-American organizations in Miami in the 1990s. Their espionage led to the shooting down of two civilian planes that were flying from Florida to Habana as part of their anti-Castro activities. The five spies that ended up in jail became known as the Cuban Five and the banner of much pro-Cuban propaganda disguised as protests against imperialism and supported by even a bunch of Nobel laureates.

I say all this because by now it has become pretty obvious that celebrities are lending themselves to the wrong causes. Just because a politician or activist say that they fight for freedom, the oppressed, or the silenced ones, does not mean that they even mean it, let alone that their actions actually corroborate their words. It has been proven that most populist, so-called progressive governments become totalitarian and end up oppressing even more those they were meant to defend, vindicate, and protect. Just look at the massive poor population in Venezuela, the women, or the natives in remote areas who are getting the worse part of a recipe that combines state-sponsored terrorism, intimidation, censorship, deprivation, torture, exile and death.

Unlike what some critics have written, I think that Wasp Network fails not only at telling a coherent story (a better editing and less propagandistic approach might have done the trick); it also fails at telling it objectively. By trying so hard to make us look at the human side of the Cuban spies involved in the fiasco, the director produces a piece that serves the wrong side of history.

Movie critics, especially if they are evaluating a historic-political drama cannot be so simplistic as to only highlight its aesthetics and cast.

Nicholas Barber of BBC gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "an entertaining and often glamorous cloak-and-dagger thriller in which the sun is always shining and the actors are all gorgeous."

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a big, handsomely shot movie with a strong cast and stunning location work".

A movie like Wasp Network put us in a moral dilemma: is a certain kind of violence justified? Are some lives more valuable than others? The short answer, PC aside, is yes, and the movies answers in the affirmative in favor of the Castros. Because dictators like fidel et al (and you can add here any of his historical allies) claim to be defending higher values, fighting empires, speaking for the poor and exploited and for those whose voices have been silenced by corporate/capitalist interests, their cause is supposed to be the good one. The same can be said about maduro in Venezuela if you are willing to ignore the tons of evidence that documents his atrocities. I think that artists have also a moral responsibility and should be accountable for the damage they cause by lending themselves to portraying a criminal regime as a victim and their perpetrators as heroes.

The movie is worth watching, though. First, because being based on true events and actually using some real life footage from news and statements on the case (Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro), a generation that did not live the unfolding of those events may benefit for this exposure and draw their own conclusions. These events are still having repercussions on the current political scene. Secondly, because this is probably the first time that the Cuban spies’ crisis is portrayed in mainstream cinema, and it provides insights on the motivations and interests behind every party involved. It also provides details of the modus operandi of terrorist groups on either side.

I honestly think that the story is poorly told in cinematic terms because it was overshadowed by its political agenda. Some critics praise the fact that the movie makers were able to shoot on locations in Cuba. That was for me the first indication that the movies would be biased. No Cuban authority would allow a movie to be shot there unless they are portrayed as the good guys. The only “good thing” about the movie was probably Penelope Cruz’s accent. She was in character all the way through. Ramirez, on the other hand, dropped the Cuban accent 5 minutes into the movie.

From a political perspective, the movie provides important insights into how an allegedly vulnerable regime can infiltrate more powerful structures and cause a great deal of damage to causes that may be questioned because of the means used (terrorist attacks on Cuban soil to weaken the regime), but whose ultimate end (the end of a dictatorship) is more than commendable. Similar networks have been created around the Venezuelan opposition and now it is easier to understand why our political situation is so messed up and why the opposition seems to be constantly sabotaging the opportunities presented to rid us of this horrendous nightmare.

Cast

• Penélope Cruz as Olga Salanueva de Gonzalez
• Édgar Ramírez as René Gonzalez
• Wagner Moura as Juan Pablo Roque
• Gael García Bernal as Gerardo Hernandez
• Ana de Armas as Ana Magarita Martinez
• Leonardo Sbaraglia as Jose Basulto
  Directed by: Olivier Assayas
  Running time: 123 minutes
  Produced by: Orange Studio and RT Features
  Distributed by: Netflix
  My rating: 3/10

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