Cuba
, 105 min
Shown in 1980
CREDITS
- dir
-
Sergio Giral
- scr
-
Sergio Giral, Jorge Sotolongo
- cam
-
Raul Rodríguez
- cast
-
Samuel Claxton, Miguel Navarro, Roberto Blanco, Miguel Gutiérrez
- prod co
-
ICAIC
OTHER
Sergio Giral is the best known of the Black Cuban directors and his previous films, The Other Francisco and Rancheador, were historical observations and the ultimate freedom that resulted. Maluala is the most striking addition to this genre and a prizewinner at the first Festival of New Latin American Cinema held in Cuba earlier this year. The action takes place during the last century in the region of Maluala. Gallo, the Black chieftain, together with his cohort, Coba, present a petition for land and liberty if the rebellious villages will be dismantled and their men offer themselves in surrender. He promises that they will be freed shortly thereafter. Three chieftains agree, but Gallo and Coba refuse. It is at this point that Escudero decides to use trickery and force in order to destroy the Malualan community, to disrupt their hierarchy and gain total control. Giral has mounted Maluala with colorful ritual and the acting, particularly Samuel Claxton as Gallo, is highly stylized in the heroic tradition. It is an absorbing adventure film wrought from historical events which appear exotic and violent, but Giral constantly implants into every image the necessity for unity among people in order to combat man’s seemingly casual desire to subjugate mankind in the struggle for power and undefined ambition.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #1
The Festival has screened many debuts, both short- and feature-length, by some of cinema’s most influential artists including Juan Antonio Bardem, Jane Campion, Roman Polanski, Melvin Van Peebles and Lina Wertmüller.
