Sergio & Sergei tells a fictionalized story based on some real events. It's 1991 and the Soviet Union has collapsed, stranding astronaut Sergei Asimov (Hector Noas) alone in the Mir space station for four months longer than planned. Down on Earth, Cuba has now lost its patron, and the economic impact leaves the country struggling, including university professor Sergio (Tomas Cao), whose background in Marxist philosophy and fluency in Russian are no longer in such great demand. Sergio makes contact on his ham radio with Sergei and they strike up a friendship. Sergio also has a ham radio buddy named Peter (Ron Perlman) in New York who is a conspiracy theorist. The film tells a serious story of people caught in personal struggles for the well-being of themselves and their families brought on by these bigger world events, with some insight into the workings (and non-workings) of the governments that each of the two protagonists has to deal with. I'm surprised that the Cuban government supported what would appear to be a pretty subversive film. It was fun and quirky and a very original story and I liked it a lot. The film is mostly in Spanish and Russian (with subtitles) with some English as well.
TIFF 2017 Overview
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