mbumba

Fernando birri directed this film in collaboration with the Cuban film institute. this film is based on a short story by gabriel garcia marquez. the "angel" that falls to earth is indeed an old man with enormous wings, and not at all clean. the very humble and unsophisticated people in the village where it befell, exploit his novelty for profit. the old man is not an angel, but a metaphor that represents natural resources that are lucratively commodified, and finally exhausted. if you are following me now, then you can see for yourself what the carnival represents. at the end of the movie the old man escapes his cage, but unfortunately some of us that have seen this movie have yet to leave ours.

this is a film about the vicissitudes of revolutionary Cuba made by a revolutionary without dollars, but with raw talent. it shows that Cubans endure. solas is a master cineasta. his "lucia" is a masterpiece of world cinema. his epic full length version of "el siglo de las luces", is one of the great little known masterpieces of history as cinema. his last two films were made on a low budget, and he relaunched the aesthetic of imperfect cinema, calling it "el cine pobre". his film "un hombre de exito" made in 1985, told a story that transpires over 3 decades of a Cuban family torn apart by dictatorship and revolution. andy garcia's "lost city" appears inauthentic compared to this narrative. rest in peace maestro solas.

the beholder owns the eye, and the film maker wields the dialectical prism. solas made a film about the Cuban dilemma. the protagonist Roberto was when a child kidnapped by his father, and taken to Miami (he believes that his mother abandoned him). as the first reel unwinds, Roberto as an adult is returning to Cuba to find his mother, and confront her. on his picaresque journey to encounter his mother, he travels across Cuba and discovers that he is among family and that he is not alone. solas who was a Marxist, subjects the financially well off Roberto to a Cuba reeling from the collapse of it's economy, but with it's heart still intact. it's a wonderful film about reconciliation.