• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 09 / 16 / 2010

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The award-winning film Strawberry and Chocolate opens a week of Cuban cinema in Russia on Wednesday, featuring films that show the island's cultural diversity and its way of seeing reality.

The festival will include screenings of "El Benny"; La Bella del Alhambra (The Beauty of the Alhambra) on Thursday; Hasta cierto punto (To a Certain Extent)on Friday; Un hombre de éxito (A Successful Man) on Saturday; La vida es silbar (Life Is Whistling) on Sunday; and El cuerno de la abundancia (The Horn of Abundance) on Monday.

The Cuban film series at the Illuzion movie theater will be attended by Cuban actress Mirtha Ibarra, who acts in three of the films, and Jorge Luis Sanchez, director of El Benny.

The Cuban delegation is composed of Isabel Prendes, general manager of audiovisuals for the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and Maria Padron, ICAIC senior international relations specialist.

It is also made up of Manuel Perez Paredes, ICAIC artistic adviser, and director of the Cuban film "El hombre de Maisinicú" (Maisinicu Man) (1973) and co-director of La bella del Alhambra (The Beauty of the Alhambra), as well as producer of dozens of documentaries.

The Cuban producer said the film series was Cuban cinema's return to Russia after two decades, and a first step in establishing relations between Cuban and Russian cinema after years of sporadic contact.

The most important thing is that Russians learn about Cuban cinema, which is small in quantity, since the production is limited, but has a high level of quality, Perez Paredes said.

Source: PL