Lessons for Luca

Uncle Ezequiel is serving a six-year prison sentence. What crime did this Cuban farmer commit? Answer: He sold his own cow. Filmmaker Salvador Gieling, a cousin by marriage, just can’t get his head around it. And if he can’t, how will Luca – Salvador’s two-year-old son and Ezequiel’s nephew – ever understand it?

So Salvador and his wife Belga travel to the heart of the Cuban countryside and together with the family members they undertake the almost impossible mission of trying to explain to their two-year-old son Luca the story of his uncle Ezequiel.

The film intertwines the country’s incredible history with truth-finding about Ezequiel’s case and the personal story of Belga (who managed to get out of Cuba). And bit by bit, the film reveals how the individual struggles of the protagonists are all connected to a greater history and the same question that keeps coming up: “What does freedom actually mean?”

Lessons for Luca also is an affectionate family portrait, framed by the captivating music of cellist Ernst Reijseger, whose melancholy melodies are interspersed with playful moments and scenes that highlight the joy and vitality of life.