Great films of the Cuban Film Industry: MIEL PARA OSHÚN

By: Antonio Mazón Robau
Photos: Rolando Pujol

Humberto Solás (1941-2008) is one of the most outstanding directors of the Cuban film industry. Born in Havana, he joined ICAIC (Cuban Film Institute) in the same year of its creation in 1959 and filmed short films and documentaries as Variaciones and Minerva traduce el mar (1961) until his debut in the short fiction film El Acoso (1965) and the medium length film Manuela (1966). A few years later he filmed his first full length movie, Lucía (1968), considered by critics as one of the most important films in the history of Spanish American movies; he would continue with titles as Un día de noviembre (1972), Cantata de Chile (1975), Cecilia (1981), Amada (1983), Un hombre de éxito (1986), El siglo de las luces (1992), Miel para Oshún (2001) and Barrio Cuba (2005), his last full length movie. Miel para Oshún has Roberto as main character, a young Cuban American illegally taken out of Cuba by his father when he was seven years old and returning for the first time to his country of birth. His main objective is to confront and re-encounter his mother, whom he believes abandoned him. This trip will also lead to a decisive encounter with his country and his true identity.

This Spanish-Cuban coproduction, conceived from an Elia Solás script, sister of the director, has as main theme the unity among all Cubans above any other difference and its noticeable making and relevant performances turned the film into an immediate favorite of critics and public as well.

Jorge Perugorría, Isabel Santos, Mario Limonta, Adela Legrá, and Elvira Cervera play the main roles of this movie, winner of multiple prizes in Cuba and abroad. Special Prize of the Jury at the XXIII International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema; Official Selection of the Montreal Americas Festival in Canada; nominated for the spanish Goya prize; Great Jury Prize at the Washington Independent Movie Festival; Ariel Mexican prize as best Latinamerican foreign film and the public’s Great Prize at the Los Angeles Latin Film Festival, among other awards.