Portuguese Film Showcase at the José Martí National Library of Cuba

A cycle of Portuguese cinema began this Monday at the Hart Theater of the José Martí National Library of Cuba, representing a collaborative effort between the prominent cultural institution in Havana and the Embassy of Portugal.

The program opened with the film Saint George (2016), which follows an unemployed boxer who is pushed to the brink as he struggles to provide for his wife and son—even if it means crossing moral boundaries and descending into the criminal underworld, according to a report by Prensa Latina.

On Wednesday, November 19, at 11:00 a.m., audiences will have the opportunity to experience The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (2020), an adaptation of the novel by renowned Portuguese writer José Saramago. The film’s protagonist inhabits 1935 Europe, on the eve of World War II (1939–1945), where he reflects on life’s complexities while conversing with the ghost of the poet Fernando Pessoa.

The festival concludes on Friday, November 21, at the same time, with the biographical film SNU (2019), which intimately portrays the romance between two prominent Portuguese political figures of the 1970s: Snu Abecassis and former Prime Minister Sá Carneiro.

Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez