18th anniversary of Zahir Raihan Film Society

Cuban cinema is characterised by its social commitment and innovation. It represents on the celluloid the daily realities of life in Cuba as well as its past history. Often films are set in the past to show its difference with the present. Unlike most of the countries in the world, the percentage of the cine-goers in Cuba is extremely high and formidable. This is not only because of the large number of cinema halls situated in the cities and towns, but also because of the mobile cinema units that go to the remote villages. Entire population has an access to films. Almost each of the films gets back its production cost from the local audience.

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and others had studied filmmaking at the 'Centro Sperimentale della cinematographia', the Italian Film Institute in Rome, back in the 1950s. They brought back with them the ideals and inspiration of the Italian 'Neo-Realism', the cinema of underdevelopment. They founded ICAIC in 1959.

The first film in Cuba was made in 1897, almost immediately after the invention of cinema in Europe in 1895. And the socially committed political films date back to 1939. The pre-Revolutionary Cuban films used to deal with overtly melodramatic themes and subjects. The Revolution of 1959 changed the concept of cinema and filmmaking. Cinema no longer is a means of entertainment, it is primarily and essentially, a means of educating and shaping the collective psyche.

This change was witnessed by world renowned documentary filmmaker John Grierson as early as in 1961. He found fertile ground for his radical concept of social documentary as a hammer with which to shape reality. The Cuban cinema provides both history and social cohesiveness. Cuban cinema celebrates the lives of the ordinary people -- their emotional, economic and socio-political realities.

Apart from filmmakers such as Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuban cinema has produced committed filmmakers such as Humberto Solás, Santiago Alvarez, Manuel Octavio Gómez, Sara Gómez, Sergio Giral, Manuel Pérez, Juan Carlos Tabio, Fernando Pérez, and others. Their films present memory, ideals and drama, along with idiosyncratic humour and a powerful sense of place and belonging.

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1928-1996), considered the greatest Cuban filmmaker, in his films such as Death of a Bureaucrat (1966), Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) and Guantanamera (1994), describes life in Cuba in subtle, often comic ways. Alea was able to explore his own complicated relationship with the Cuban Revolution: while working within the system, he always criticised its shortcomings, insisting on public discourse.

Lucia, by Humberto Solás, is a film in three episodes. Each of its episodes treats a different stage in Cuba's struggle for liberation, both from within and without, and each is filmed in a style appropriate to the period it describes.

Zahir Raihan Film Society, the country's leading film club, celebrates its 18th anniversary ( May 16, 1986 May 16, 2004) with the screening of 15 Cuban films. These films, considered among the best films produced in the New Cuban Cinema, were made between 1966 and 2003. These films will be screened at the Goethe Institute Dhaka at Road No. 9, Dhanmondi, from May 16- May 20, 2004, with three screenings each day: at 3.30 pm, 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm.