MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT 
Memorias del subdesarrollo
Cuba, 1968
Spanish with English subtitles | 104 min
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Sunday, Aug 27
2:30 PM | The Cinematheque

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Hailed by many critics as the most sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba and one of the Top 100 films of all time, Memories of Underdevelopment is the masterpiece of visionary Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

Sergio, a Cuban bourgeois dilettante and aspiring writer, refuses to accompany his family into exile in the USA in the years following the triumph of the Revolution. His inconsistent ideology keeps him on the sidelines of a frenzied society; having lost his former world, he can’t quite find his place in the new revolutionary process, and spends his time chasing women to fill the void. As the October Missile Crisis of 1962 unfolds, Sergio’s intellectual ideals, like his country, are put to the ultimate test.

“This stirring blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage catalogs the many intricacies and contradictions of a bourgeois Cuban intellectual’s loyalty to Castro’s revolution.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

Memorias del Subdesarrollo narra la vida de Sergio, un burgués que decide quedarse en Cuba mientras toda su familia abandona el país luego del triunfo de la Revolución. Sergio buscará un sentido a su vida escribiendo sus memorias, y la Revolución se convierte en un reto: tratará de comprenderla y hallar una coherencia dentro de su sistema de valores. El filme llega a su clímax con la Crisis de Octubre, cuando Sergio descubre que toda su educación y sus valores se derrumban.

En el año 2009, Memorias del Subdesarrollo fue designada como la mejor película iberoamericana de la historia en la primera encuesta mundial para elegir los cien filmes iberoamericanos más destacados.

 ¿Qué sentido tiene la vida para ellos?
¿Y para mí? ¿qué sentido tiene para mí?
Pero yo no soy como ellos.
Sergio.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Producers: Miguel Mendoza
Writers: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Edmundo Desnoes
Cinematographer: Ramón F. Suárez
Editors: Nelson Rodríguez
Cast: Sergio Corrieri, Daisy Granados, Eslinda Núñez, Omar Valdéz, René de la Cruz

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Havana, Cuba, 1928-1996) was one of the co-founders of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), and in 1960, directed its first narrative feature, Historias de la Revolución. His hugely popular 1993 film Fresa y chocolate, won the Goya Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 

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