7 Days in Havana is a snapshot of Havana in 2012, a contemporary portrait of this eclectic city, through a film composed of 7 chapters directed by Benicio del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabío, and Laurent Cantet. Through their different sensibilities, origins and film styles, they've captured the energy and vitality that make this city unique. Some directors wanted to encounter Cuban reality in its everyday essence, with the gaze of strangers far from their own references. Others chose full immersion and were inspired by local people's lives.
Each chapter reocunts a day in the week, through the everyday life of a different character. Far from clichés, this film aims to make the soul of this heterogenous city vibrate through different neighborhoods, atmospheres, generations, and cultures.
If the seven stories present different plots, the directors accepted to include their tale in a partially shared narrative and to link their stories, so as to give dramatic unity to the whole. Some locations, such as the Hotel Nacional or the Malecon, reappear thoughout the chapters. Some main and secondary characters slip from one film to another, connecting the stories in a way that shows that in Havana, all social classes cross paths, mix, or sometimes become entangled.
