THE second edition of Screen Cuba: Films to change the world comes to UK cinema screens this month. Celebrating the remarkable achievements of Cuban cinema, the festival again offers a selection of outstanding contemporary films, as well as those produced over the last six decades.

The political importance cannot be overestimated. Cuban film-makers, like the rest of the island, are facing formidable challenges. The blockade against Cuba will undoubtedly deepen under the new Trump administration, and resources and distribution networks will become ever scarcer. These severe conditions are compounded with the island’s recent hurricanes and electricity outages. 

It is against these incredibly difficult conditions that the ongoing “Battle of Ideas” continues to take place. Fidel Castro first spoke of the Battle of Ideas in 2001 in the context of the struggle to win hearts and minds over the fight for the return of Cuban child Elian Gonzalez, who was being held in the US without his father’s consent. 

Today the “Battle” goes on as Cuba is blockaded at every level including the arts, culture and sports. Cuban artists are regularly denied visas to perform in the US, Cuban musicians are regularly hounded out of performances by far-right interventions in Europe, and in February the Cuban baseball team were denied visas to participate in the Antillean Baseball Cup scheduled to take place in Puerto Rico.

In these circumstances, the Screen Cuba Film Festival provides a much-needed platform for cinema from the island, and will help to undermine the isolation the US government tries to impose. Screen Cuba will also support projects of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC). Funds raised by the 2024 festival restored two cartoon shorts by Juan Padron, the father of animation in Cuba, which will be screened at this year. 

All of the films had an impact on Cuban society, often sparking widespread discussions and debate on release, and resulting in real changes in how issues like homophobia, race discrimination, bureaucracy and relations within the family are approached. These are universal themes that will strike a chord with UK audiences too, and will hopefully deepen understanding of the power of cinema to draw people into public debate and action. 

A highlight of the Festival will be the screening of Memories of Underdevelopment (1968). This film by Tomas Gutierrez Alea, often cited as Cuba’s greatest director, is the most internationally renowned work in the history of Cuban cinema. It explores the ambivalent thoughts of narcissistic anti-hero Sergio, a wealthy aspiring intellectual, as he faces a new uncertain life after his wife and family flee to the US between the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Missile Crisis and he chooses to stay.

A decade later, the largest audience since Alea’s film queued to see Pastor Vega’s groundbreaking Portrait of Teresa (1979), which sparked a widespread debate on gender roles throughout Cuban society, also being shown this year.

Behaviour (2014), directed by Ernesto Daranas, won multiple awards, having started as a movie workshop for a group of students in Havana. With echoes of Ken Loach’s Kes, 11-year-old Chala keeps pigeons and illegally trains fighting dogs in order to support himself and his alcoholic mother.

The extraordinary work of Fernando Perez, one of Cuba’s most important film-makers, appears with two very different films: Clandestinos (1987), his feature debut, and the most recent The World of Nelsito (2023). Based on real events, the former is a tense action-packed political thriller set in the 1950s during the final days of revolutionary struggle against the dictator Batista, featuring a group of young clandestine fighters printing and distributing pamphlets. It is a film of love, bravery and sacrifice. The World of Nelsito is a dark comedy-drama exploring perception and imagination through the eyes of an autistic teenage boy with little means to communicate, living with his mother.

Many films have helped to shape Cuban society. But even beyond the island, they show films need not be an escape to a Hollywood fantasy land nor a unique individualistic vision of the director, and that a “cinema of connection” can be far more satisfying. 

Paul Fleming, general secretary of Equity, who together with the NEU and the TUC have sponsored the Screen Cuba, said: “Equity’s motto as a trades union is ‘To all artists: good work; to all workers: good art; to all people: equity,’ and the Cuban model of arts and entertainment is the living embodiment of this mission. Against seemingly insurmountable pressures, the Cuban people and their revolutionary project continue to be a beacon for our class around the world. As crucial as the provision of medical aid wherever it is needed, the telling of Cuban stories on screen is food for the mind and succour for the soul.”

Screen Cuba runs from March 16-30, with screenings in London, Aberystwyth, Pontypridd, Oxford and Nottingham. For info and tickets see: screencuba.uk