La nota final
2001 · 6m · Cuba , España
Directed by Maite Rivera Carbonell
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, musical
Tones: contemplative, tender
In Havana, Gabriel struggles amid the difficulties of daily life to build his perfect musical scale. He pursues that goal despite the obstacles around him.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A kid building a musical scale in Havana sounds like it *should* be treacly, but Rivera Carbonell commits so fully to the metaphor—treating a six-minute pursuit of sonic perfection as genuine stakes—that it becomes almost perverse in its refusal to sentimentalize.
The film moves within a clear lineage of poetic coming-of-age work, its contemplative pacing and tender restraint deliberately positioned against the chaos of daily Havana—a formal choice that recalls the structuralist tradition of building meaning through repetition and small variations.
The genius here is sound design as character: by making Gabriel's pursuit of the perfect scale audible—each attempt fractionally closer to resolution—Rivera Carbonell transforms a minimal narrative into something genuinely moving through a single, elegant technical commitment.