Jury Prize, World Documentary competition, Sundance
As a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Cuba is the epicentre of two things: it was the start of American internationalism imperialism, and it was the first war in which cinema played a significant role. This essay film by Austrian Hubert Sauper ponders questions about the lingering effects of these two phenomena in contemporary Cuba. How to be a visitor to Cuba without being a tourist who reduces the island to consumable images? How to be a filmmaker without falling in with the long tradition of propaganda filmmaking? What he’s not going to do is resort to the opinions of experts, instead foregrounding the views of children (“little prophets” as he calls them) and people he encounters in the streets. The result is a complex portrait of Cuba as it emerges from Fidelism to an uncertain future.
“a remarkable fluidity and gracefulness that’s consistently engaging and surprising.” (Hollywood Reporter)
“moments of bell-like clarity along the way that build into a touching lament for a people constantly at the mercy of other nations’ grand designs.” (Screen International)
Hubert Sauper
Hubert Sauper was born in Austria in 1966, though he is now based in France. He studied photography in the US and then filmmaking in Vienna. His films include the fiction feature So I Sleepwalk in Broad Daylight (1994) and the documentaries On the Road with Emil (1993), Lomographer’s Moscow (1995), Kisangani Diary (1998), Alone with Our Stories (2000), the Oscar-nominated Darwin’s Nightmare (2004), and We Come As Friends (2014).
