Kerala - Kochi   

Film festival brings post-revolutionary Cuba to town

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Cochin Film Society, in association with the Corporation of Cochin and the Embassy of Cuba, has brought to town a bunch of films from Cuba.

Post-revolutionary Cuba saw a surge in filmmaking with a group of world-renowned filmmakers like Humberto Solas and Tomas Gutierrez Alea creating some of the finest films.

The festival, which began on Sunday, will continue till Friday, with screenings to be held in the evenings at the E.M.S. Memorial Town Hall, Ernakulam North.

The Corporation's Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-HED) is pooling in with the film society for conducting the festival. The monthly archive screening of the film society conducted in association with the National Film Archive of India, Pune, and to be held on coming Sunday, too will have a Cuban film.

The opening film Barrio Cuba was a work of Solas in 2005, telling unconnected stories of universal challenges faced by several residents of Havana. It is the second part of a planned trilogy by Solas.On Monday, Juan Carlos Cremata's Viva Cuba / Long Life to Cuba (2005) directed by Juan Carlos Cremata and Lista de Espera / The Waiting List (2000) directed by Juan Carlos Tabio were screened.

The second feature film of the director, Viva Cuba had won the Grand Prix Ecrans Juniors at the Cannes Film Festival.

This film was hailed as "a wonderful film for children, but not just a children's film". The Waiting List takes place at a bus station in the middle of Cuba. The film is filled with characters who are waiting to go someplace. The title Espera in Spanish means `to wait' as well as `to hope.'

On Tuesday, Clouds over Kerala was screened. It is a 40-minute documentary directed by Klaus Liebig, an educationist and trade union activist from Germany who takes a look at Kerala and the process by which the forces of globalisation are set to reverse the progress made by the State. Roble de Olor / Scent of Oak, directed by Rigoberto Lopez, will be Wednesday's film. Nada / Nothing, directed by Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, and Reina Y Rey / Queen and King, directed by Julio Garcia Espinoza y Angel Alderete, will be screened on Thursday.

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