Acting
Explores the sensuous rhythms and movements of the dance style known as the rumba, as demonstrated by the celebrated Havana rumbero Papá Montero. Blending vintage documentary footage with meticulously staged recreations, the dancer's tragic assassination at Carnival is connected with the passing of a cultural era in Cuban life.
One winter morning in 1963, a Civil Aviation captain arrives in Gibara. A taxi driver takes him to the guest house of Elena, a lady belonging to the old bourgeoisie of the place. At first, Elena and the other guests treat the newcomer coldly, but when they learn that he is a captain in the US Civil Aviation Authority (who has come to Cuba to exchange medicine for the invaders at Playa GirĂłn), the situation changes. A dazzling romance begins between Elena and the captain, but the ending will be unexpected.
A Haitian son returns from fifteen years in Cuba to find his home village afflicted with the double plague of drought and strife. A Cuban production from the director of Memories of Underdevelopment. In Spanish.
In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs incident, Sergio chooses to stay behind in Cuba while his wife and family escape to neighboring Miami. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion while chasing young women all over Havana. He finally meets Elena, a young girl he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself?
Europe in 1793. For years, England and France have been at war with each other. Now, France sends three men to the British colony of Jamaica to organize a slave revolt. The envoys are Debuisson, the grandson of a Jamaican rum manufacturer, who knows the island very well, his old friend Sasportas, and the sailor Galloudec. After having established contact with the fragmented rebel groups, they receive the surprising news of Napoleon′s takeover in France. Whereas Debuisson, who by now has gotten used to his role as a rich heir, wants to wait for new instructions from home, his companions are determined to press ahead with the revolt. When a slave kills a British guard, the situation escalates.
A model Cuban revolutionary tragically dies at work and, as a badge of honor, is buried with his labor card in his suit pocket. When his widow attempts to apply for his pension, the pension office demands the original labor card. Desperate, his nephew embarks on an increasingly chaotic and surreal quest through the Cuban bureaucratic system to secure permission to exhume the body, only to be met with endless forms, contradictory regulations, and apathetic officials.
Three stories reconstructing the start of the triumphant Cuban revolution which deposed Batista.
