Humberto Solás
Humberto Solás (born December 4, 1941 in Havana ; † September 17, 2008 there ) was a Cuban film director.
Life
Humberto Solás studied history at the Universidad de La Habana before embarking on a career in film at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos at the age of 18 . His first short film was also made at this time. He later went to Rome and attended film courses at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia .
He became internationally known in the 1960s through the films Manuela and the love story Lucia . In these he already took up the topic of the role of women in Cuban society, which he should also focus on in many other films. Lucia , which won the main prize at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1969, tells the story of three Cuban women named Lucía between 1895 and 1965. Numerous other awards followed, including the 1976 crystal globe of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for the film Cantata about Chile . In the 1980s, his free implementation of the story of Cecilia Valdés sparked controversy. In his last film Barrio Cuba (2005) he dealt with the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union on Cuba.
In 2003 he initiated the Festival del Cine Pobre ("Festival of Poor Cinema") in the small town of Gibara . With this he wanted to draw attention to the negative effects of globalization .
In April 2003, Solás was one of a group of prominent Cuban cultural workers who signed an open letter to friends of Cuba around the world, published in the newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba , Granma , and to international criticism of the Cuban government's human rights policies as an anti-Cuban smear campaign rejected: In the previous weeks, President Fidel Castro had sentenced 75 critical journalists and civil rights activists to long prison terms in a wave of arrests known as the " Black Spring " and had three young black Cubans executed after the bloodlessly unsuccessful attempt to hijack a ship.
Solás died of cancer at the age of 66.
Filmography (selection)
- 1962: Minerva traduce el mar
- 1966: Manuela
- 1968: Lucia (Lucía)
- 1972: One day in November (Un día de noviembre)
- 1974: Simparelé
- 1975: Cantata on Chile (La Cantata de Chile)
- 1982: Cecilia Valdés based on the novel "Cecilia Valdes or The Angel's Hill" by Cirilo Villaverde
- 1983: Amada - Young woman from Havana (Amada) based on the novel "The Sphinx" by Miguel de Carrion y Cardenas
- 1985: The careerist (Un hombre de éxito)
- 1991: El Siglo de las luces
- 2001: Miel para Oshún
- 2005: Barrio Cuba
Web links
- Humberto Solás in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Knut Henkel: Driving force in Latin American cinema - obituary in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 19, 2008, No. 219, p. 44
- Phil Davison: Humberto Solas - Obituary in The Independent , September 22, 2008, p. 34 (English)
- Obituary by Hanns Georg Rodek on welt.de, September 22, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Spiegel : Humberto Solás died , September 18, 2008
- ↑ Message from Havana for our friends far away (PDF; 7 kB) from: Friendship Society BRD - Cuba eV , accessed on June 27, 2011, Spanish version here
- ↑ Hijackers executed by ferry in Cuba In: Der Tagesspiegel of April 13, 2003, accessed on June 27, 2011
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Solás, Humberto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cuban film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 4, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Havana |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 17, 2008 |
| Place of death | Havana |