‘The Machine’ directed by Adolfo Mena Cejas: Why you need to see it
The Machine is a short film directed by award-winning director Adolfo Mena Cejas. The story follows Lázara Carvajal, a woman who has won the American Visa Lottery. She has always dreamed of living in the United States. She wants a house with a pool, an electric coffee maker, and a yellow bus to pick her child up for school. Her husband on the other hand has embraced the difficulties of Cuba. Tensions between the two swell when the phone call announcing their lottery win comes in.
Adolfo Mena Cejas has won multiple awards for directing and scriptwriting short films all around the world including the Best Narrative Short Film Award at the London Eye International Film Festival and the Best Short film of 2014 at the Cinematographic Press Association of Cuba.
In regard to the film The Machine, Cejas says, “To stay or to leave the island is the ¨to be or not to be¨ for the majority of Cubans. This was my dilemma and I eventually migrated to the United States. I still don’t have an answer even after directing “The Machine¨. I hope, however, that this film will connect with many people who, like me, are searching for answers to life’s most essential questions about happiness, belonging, and sense of place”.
Adolfo Mena Cejas goes on to say, “It was very important for me to make this short film because it was my last step before starting to produce my first feature film. By having the public participate in this family story, which is Cuban, personal, and universal at the same time, I hoped to move them and include them in the deeply human search for happiness.”
This short film, which is deeply personal to Cejas and extremely relatable to so many people, is worthy of a watch in order to understand the experiences of those around you and gain a deeper understanding of the world. Or, if you perhaps can relate to this film yourself, then this movie is most definitely for you.
Cejas describes The Machine and its story as being about, “Family unity and the complicated intersection of love for ourselves and our love for others are ways to dialogue about and provide an outlet for the essential ¨to be or not to be¨, or at the very least try to provide a response that could make our lives better”.
