The film will be followed by a Q&A with Michael Chanan, filmmaker and Cuban cinema specialist, and Tania Delgado, director, Havana Film Festival.

This classic film satirises how red tape in the revolution affects the everyday lives of its people. As a badge of honour, a model worker is buried with his labour card in his pocket. But his widow needs it to claim the benefits she is entitled to. The film traces the family’s often hilarious Kafka-esque efforts to recover the precious document in the new society where everyone is treated as equals. But should that extend to the dead? Alea, known as the father of Cuban cinema, presents a radical new vision of a universal theme containing notes of many cinematic icons from Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, to Brecht, Eisenstein and Buñuel.

Awards:  

Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) International Film Festival, winner, Special Jury Prize (shared).

Now! (Santiago Alvarez, 1965, Cuba, ICAIC, 6 min)

A hard-hitting documentary short about the civil rights movement in the US. Directed by Santiago Alvarez, known as one of the finest documentary filmmakers that the revolution produced. For 30 years he headed up the Cuban Film Institute’s now legendary newsreel division, Noticerio ICAIC.  The short has a soundtrack of the same title by the African-American singer Lena Horne which was banned in the US. A series of clips and still images of the civil rights movement in the US exposes the brutality of the state and the power of resistance.

Proceeds from the Solidarity ticket will to go to Cuban film institute (ICAIC) projects including restoration of classic films.

Cast:
Salvador Wood, Silvia Planas, Manuel Estanillo, Gaspar de Santelices.