GREAT FILMS OF THE CUBAN FILM INDUSTRY: CUMBITE

By: Antonio Mazón Robau

Inspired in the novel Gobernadores del rocío written by Jacques Roumain (1907-1944) the most outstanding Haitian writer of his time, the Cuban film maker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea directed in 1964 his film Cumbite, based upon a script written together with the Cuban writer Onelio Jorge Cardoso.

Cumbite, one of the director’s first full length films, places the plot in a small village in Haiti in the decade of the forties of the XX Century. When a young Haitian named Manuel returns to his country and finds his community subject to an extensive drought and divided by the antagonism of two families. Manuel discovers a watershed and tries to unite the rivalling families, but is murdered out of jealousy. The strong link between his girlfriend and his mother prevents revenge and succeeds leading the people to build the canal.

Interpreted by Teté Vergara, Lorenzo Louiz, Marta Evans, Luis Valera, Rafael Sosa, Polinise Jean, Ambroise Macombe and Elvira Cervera, the film provoked the following comment from the french critic Marcel Martin: “refusing all style artifice and language compliment, Gutiérrez Alea just intends to show us these people in their indigence and frenetic voodoo ceremonies, in which they try to find sole remedy to their misery”.

The career of this director acquires higher relevance through titles as La muerte de un burócrata, Memorias del subdesarrollo – considered the most significant Cuban film of all times – along with La última cena, Fresa y Chocolate and Guantanamera. The film maker with his traditional honesty stated relating the artistic results of Cumbite: “After Las Doce Sillas, a total success, I felt my next movie should maintain the same quality level….Under these circumstances I stumbled upon the novel Los gobernadores del Rocío. But the script as well as the work in the film proper are exceedingly literary”. Nevertheless, Cumbite remains as an interesting film and one more step towards the mastery of film language of this director.

Cumbite was awarded the Silver Medal in the Cork Festival in Ireland in 1966.