Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Writers:

Edmundo Desnoes (novel)
Edmundo Desnoes (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 May 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami...

Plot Keywords:

Cuba | Cuban Missile Crisis | New Latin American Cinema | Fidel Castro | Havana Cuba

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Sergio Corrieri	...	Sergio Carmona Mendoyo
Daisy Granados	...	Elena
Eslinda Núñez	...	Noemi
Omar Valdés	...	Pablo
René de la Cruz	...	Elena's brother
Yolanda Farr
Ofelia González
Jose Gil Abad
Daniel Jordan
Luis López
Rafael Sosa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eduardo Casado Revuelta
René Depestre	...	Himself / Panelist
Edmundo Desnoes	...	Himself
Pello el Afrokán
Jack Gelber	...	Himself
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea	...	Himself
Gilda Hernández
Fausto Pinelo
Beatriz Ponchova
Gianni Toti	...	Himself / Panelist
Julio Vega
René Villarreal
David Viñas	...	Himself / Panelist

Also Known As:

Historias del subdesarrollo
Inconsolable Memories
Memories of Underdevelopment (USA)
Erinnerung an die Unterentwicklung (West Germany) (TV title) [de]
Memórias do Subdesenvolvimento (Brazil) [pt]
Memorie del sottosviluppo (Italy) [it]
Mnimes ypanaptyxis (Greece) [el]
Muistoja alikehityksen ajoilta (Finland) [fi]
Wspomnienia (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

97 min | West Germany:90 min (TV)

Country:

Cuba

Language:

Spanish | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Brazil:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Havana, Cuba

Company:

Cuban State Film

Trivia:

The first film to be made in post-revolutionary Cuba to be released in the United States.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Memorias del desarrollo (2009)

Worth seeing for historical interest

Although this isn't a particularly good film, it provides a fascinating look into life in Cuba during the first few years after Castro's revolution. Although released in 1968, it is set in 1961-1962. While it was no doubt censored by the Cuban government, and you would have no idea from watching this film that what is being depicted is a police state, the film is in many ways surprisingly honest about several aspects of post-revolutionary life, i.e., the mass exodus from the country in 1961, the shortages, etc. So it's worth a look if you can catch it.