50 Years of the Cuban Revolution

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Four wonderful Cuban films
Review added by
David Beckett

Box Set Containing Lucia, I Am Cuba, Memories of Underdevelopment and Strawberry and Chocolate
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Retail Price: £24.99
Release Date: 13/07/2009
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
Modern Cuban cinema - borne out of a revolution that took place 50 years ago - is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. To mark the occasion, Mr. Bongo Films is releasing a box set of landmark films from this iconic and turbulent nation.

Cuban cinema is vibrant and exciting and yet not as widely known as films from other countries - but all that is set to change with the release of 50 Years Of The Cuban Revolution, an impressive-looking box set featuring four outstanding films, including the never before released on DVD Lucia along with I Am Cuba, Memories Of Underdevelopment and Strawberry & Chocolate, on 13 July 2009. The Barbican cinema is also hosting the 2nd Cine Cuba from 3 to 9 July.

Shocking, moving, and above all groundbreaking, these four films are the work of esteemed directors, Humberto Solas, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Juan Carlos Tabio and Mikhail Kalatzov and tell outsiders what it means to be Cuban, past, present and future.

Described by Times Out as "The finest film to come out of Cuba in the '60s," Lucia tells three stories of three periods of Cuban history, from the vantage point of three women, each called Lucia. Directed by the world famous Humberto Solas (Manuela, Simparele) this tri-partite feature melds Cuban revolutionary fervour with feminist and social politics and was the film that catapulted Solas into the international spotlight. Focusing on the plight of women from different classes in Cuba's history, Lucia is a pioneering piece of Latin American cinema that highlights the plight and contribution of women in Cuba's revolutionary history.

Banned in the United States during the Cold War and yet now one of the most highly regarded and influential films of the second half of the 20th Century, Soviet director Mikhail Kalatzov's I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba) is a paean to the Communist revolution that wears its heart on its sleeve but is nonetheless a stunning piece of filmmaking that has shaped the work of any number of modern directors, including Paul Thomas Anderson and Martin Scorsese. Set during the dying days of the Batista regime, I Am Cuba's four vignettes show the societal ills that led to the revolution as well as the call to arms that transcended social and economic barriers. From a young woman forced into prostitution and a tenant farmer who loses his livelihood, to students taking to the streets in defiance and peasants taking up arms, I Am Cuba throbs with frustration and anger.

Hailed as one of the most sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba in the early days of Castro's revolution, Memories Of Underdevelopment (Memorias Del Subdesarollo) is visionary Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's tour de force. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage, Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds from the culture of the very subject it is studying; Cuba.

Groundbreaking and widely celebrated for numerous reasons, Juan Carlos Tabio's Strawberry & Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) was the first Cuban film ever to receive an Academy Award nomination, thanks to its revelatory plot, masterful direction and phenomenally crafted performances. An exploration into the seduction of the mind, Strawberry & Chocolate shows how politics can shape lives, opinions and relationships. Hugely controversial in Cuba even now, the film was the first to feature a gay man as the hero while openly criticising the Government and its widespread intolerance. Castro's Cuba has continued to support its artists throughout the years, and yet all they all retain their spirit of independence. They do not kowtow to the authorities that support them, and remain fiercely independent from - and often critical of - the Government.

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