16th Minnesota Cuban Film Festival

Join us for the 16th Minnesota Cuban Film Festival from April 30 - June 4, 2025! Presented by Minnesota Cuba Committee, MSP Film Society, and ICAIC (Cuban Film Institute).

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For detailed film descriptions and to buy tickets, visit: https://mspfilm.org/series/minnesota-cuban-film-festival/

Celebrate Cuban culture through films showcasing the achievements and challenges of the Cuban people through their filmmakers' eyes. Discover diverse stories of social change, human struggle, and resilience.

Over the years, we've featured works by renowned Cuban directors including Ernesto Daranas, Fernando Perez, Gloria Rolando, Humberto Solas, Juan Carlos Cremata, Jorge Perugorria, and many others.

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Our mission continues: bringing Cuban cinema and culture to Minnesota while highlighting the impact of the US blockade. Despite economic challenges, Cuba leads in medical research, environmental sustainability, and progressive policies like the new Family Code.​

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2025 Film lineup:
April 30: LA MUJER SALVAJE / WILD WOMAN
May 7: LA ESPERA / THE WAIT
May 14: UNA NOCHE CON LOS ROLLING STONES/A NIGHT WITH THE ROLLING STONES
May 21: FRESA Y CHOCOLATE / STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE
May 28: BAJO UN SOL PODEROSO / BENEATH A POWERFUL SUN
June 4: LOS ZAFIROS – MUSIC FROM THE EDGE OF TIME

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A discussion will follow the screening of the films.

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• LA MUJER SALVAJE (Wild Woman) (Fiction) In a Havana slum, forty-year-old Yolanda survives a bloody fight in which her husband almost kills her lover. In a desperate attempt to spare her son from the repercussions of this scandal, she decides to run away with him, but a video of the incident has already gone viral, and Yolanda’s mother has already fled with him without her consent. As she looks for him, she begins to face hostility from neighbors and others who have seen the video. Directed by Alán González. Celebrating Cuba’s rich history of artistic creativity of filmmakers

• LA ESPERA (The Wait) (Fiction) Regino is a widower living in Guantanamo, Cuba who faces loneliness in the shadow of the infamous US naval base. The circumstances, the place where he lives, and the loss of things he loves leads him to make a radical decision. La Espera, the first feature film of young filmmaker Daniel Ross Diéguez (DaRoDe), won the Luciole d’Or award as the Best Drama in the Cannes World Festival 2023.

• LOS ZAFIROS (The Sapphires) (Documentary) Music, history, and emotion fuel this dynamic, award-winning tribute to Los Zafiros, the Beatles of 1960s Cuba. Thirty years after their breakup, the two surviving band members, Manuel Galban and Miguel Cancio, reunite in the streets of present-day Havana, a
place full of unforgettable songs and memories for them and for their still-loyal fans. Family members, fellow artists, and friends weigh in, creating a stirring and definitive portrait of The Sapphires. Directed by Lorenzo DeStefano.

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• FRESA Y CHOCOLATE (Strawberry and Chocolate) (Fiction) In 1979 Cuba, flamboyant gay artist Diego (Jorge Perugorría) attempts to seduce the straight and strait-laced David (Vladimir Cruz), an idealistic young communist, and fails dismally. But David conspires to be "friends" with Diego so he can monitor the artist's subversive life for the state. As Diego and David discuss politics, individuality and personal expression in revolutionary Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two. The movie has real strength and charm, especially in the way it leads us to expect aromance, and then gives us a character whose very existence is a criticism of his society. Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, and Juan Carlos Tabío.

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• UNA NOCHE CON LOS ROLLING STONES (A Night with the Rolling Stones) (Fiction) March 2016: Havana is getting ready for the arrival of The Rolling Stones for an outdoor free concert, the first by a rock group since the fall of Batista. Rita is part of what is known as the "survivors"; those over forty who stayed behind while others left the island in search of a better life. Her son wants to move in with his father in Argentina, her mother insists that she is dying and, to make matters worse, she is going out with a married man. And then, as the concert is about to begin, she runs into a former boyfriend. Is this the beginning of something new for
Rita?.

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• BAJO UN SOL PODEROSO (Beneath a Powerful Sun) (Fiction) A filmmaker locks himself in his house to face up to his loneliness and the ghosts of three couples, the protagonists of three of the films he made over 31 years, from the fall of the Berlin Wall until today. An essay on loneliness, absence, unease and the weight of social circumstances on individuals. A film about Havana, as lived and filmed under a blazing sun. Directed by Enrique Kiki Alvarez.

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