Even the Chaplin cinema went dark during a Festival screening

Havana/This Monday, while several neighborhoods of the capital they went out to the streets to protest the blackouts, the Chaplin Cinema hall went dark in the middle of the screening of a poetone of the most anticipated films this year at the Havana New Latin American Cinema Festival. Simón Mesa Soto’s film, winner of Cannes, San Sebastián and El Gouna, was chosen to represent Colombia at the 2026 Oscar and Goya Awards. In the room were the protagonist and part of the film’s team, invited to present the feature film to the Havana public.

The day passed under a particularly critical electrical panorama. According to official data, the country faced a 61% deficit in demand, caused by the simultaneous failure of several thermal plants and the lack of fuel for mobile generation. In Havana, although less affected than the rest of the country, there were blackouts of more than 12 hours in numerous areas, causing pot-banging and spontaneous gatherings as night fell.

The day passed under a particularly critical electrical panorama

In the midst of this context, the festival tried to sustain its programming. The Chaplin operated with auxiliary supply, a common resource in cultural spaces and businesses when the state network cannot cover demand. The show was moving along smoothly until the backup failed or ran out of fuel midway through the movie and the screen went black. Some of the audience decided to leave, while others waited for service to be restored and the screening to conclude after a 30-minute interruption.

At the end of the performance, the audience once again found the streets in darkness, with the exception of some businesses with their own generators and the K Tower of the Iberostar hotel. Later, in the neighborhoods of Diez de Octubre, where the last protests of the night against the blackouts were dissolving, an unusual number of police patrols were circulating.

The blackout in the middle of the festival was not an isolated incident, but one more example of the structural deterioration that Havana is experiencing. The episode makes it clear that not even a cultural event to which the ruling party has dedicated wide visibility, including the intense promotion of the president’s wife, Lis Cuesta, in the previous days, is left out of the collapse that affects the entire country.