La Habanera

LA HABANERA DIRECTED BY DOUGLAS SIRK KINO VIDEO

THIS 1937 ODDITY comes from Douglas Sirk's pre-Hollywood era, a time when he was still known as Detlef Sierck and working in the Nazi-controlled German film industry. Set in a wholly fantastic colonialist Puerto Rico, La Habanera is half women's picture (glorious Nordic womanhood imprisoned by backward natives) and half scientific buddy picture (two dashing Swedish doctors questing for the antitoxin to the crushing "Puerto Rico fever").

Leavened by glittery musical numbers and the beauty of star Zarah Leander, who struts like a bargain-bin Marlene Dietrich, La Habanera is one of those queer birds that occasionally emerged during the glory days of the studio factory, as if its plot had passed through quality control without being tested. Knowing the era in which it was made, and that Joseph Goebbels was ultimately responsible for approving its production, however, it becomes difficult to overlook the film's inherent racist ideology. In this Puerto Rico, the natives are conniving and crafty and the tow-headed blond boy dreams of cold climes and snowy sled rides. Seeing the happy Swedish (read: Aryan) family sailing back to their homeland, one can't help but feel for those other dusky masses to whom Goebbels and his friends would do far more than insult.