Insumisa

The Cuban-French film Insumisa (2019) was co-written and co-directed by directed by Laura Cazador and Fernando Pérez. The literal translation of Insumisa is unsubmissive. The movie was shown in the U.S. with the title Defiant Souls.

Sylvie Testud stars as Enriqueta Faber. (Faber's life is fairly well documented, so the movie is, indeed, based on fact.) Faber portrays herself as a man, which she had to do in order to attend medical school in France. When she arrives in Cuba, she is on a search for her son. She can't find him, but she stays on as a skilled physician.

The plot continues from there, and is horrified by the horrible institution of slavery, which was legal then in Cuba. (Slavery continued to be legal there until 1886.)

The story is not a happy one, but the movie itself is fascinating. Sylvie Testud is a popular French actor, but I had not seen her work before. She is outstanding in this role.

This film was presented by ImageOut, Rochester's great LGBTQ Film Festival. (Virtual this year.) I can't believe that this movie has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.5. I rated it 10. It's one of those cases where I say, "Did other people see the same film that I saw?"