One of the more important components of La Habenera, as far as determining who the film’s hero, is goes is in which light we choose to view the film, as a tragedy or a comedy. From the classical comedic perspective Dr. Nader is the obvious choice for the hero of the film, although he is dry and a relatively static character the fact that he ends up with the girl in the end strongly suggests that he is the films hero. In this scenario, the main plotline then becomes sven’s journey to Puerto rico, his discovery of a cure to the fever and ultimate reclamation of his former flame.
If we consider the film to be a tragedy, then the plot suggests that Don Pedro becomes the hero and in turn the main plotline becomes the struggle of the island against both the forces of nature and the interference of the rest of the world. When we consider Nazi idealism, pedro’s status as a foreigner is the only thing preventing him from being an ideal german. He is strong and fearless and gentlemanly, all qualities praised by nazisim. In this sense it is not so far fetched for us to consider him the films hero. The bottom line is that the film is ambiguous, it would be acceptable to claim either interpretation. I believe it is intentionally made this way and that this sense of ambiguity is the same reason why there are no Germans involved in the conflict, only Swedes, Puerto Ricans and the mention of Americans.
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