'Che' iffy for Havana Film Festival

Director Steven Soderbergh's movie Che, featuring Benicio del Toro in the title role, will not be shown at the Havana Film Festival next December if it "deforms the relationship" between the late Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, the French agency AFP has reported. The festival's director, Alfredo Guevara (no kin to Che), told AFP: "I have not seen the movie and I don't want to be prejudicial, but I am very partial. If [the film] contains any attack against Fidel, it will not make it" to the festival. Guevara said he was a witness to Che's and Fidel's close relationship and therefore "will never accept a deformation of that history. I've heard that [the film] deforms the relationship. I don't want to be prejudicial. I want to see it."
So far as is known, Che still lacks a U.S. distributor. New York Magazine last week told of a rumor that the film would be shown at the New York Film Festival in September. Also, there have been rumors of a deal with HBO that would allow the telecast of the four-hour-long Che as a miniseries. [PHOTOS: Guevara today and in an undated snapshot with Che. Del Toro in the role of Che.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.