Feature film
The Other Francisco
El otro Francisco
Sergio Giral · 1975
Synopsis
Francisco, sold as a child, has learned to read and write from his mistress, señora Mendizábal, and works in the stables of a sugar plantation. He loves Dorotea, a servant of the house, whom Ricardo secretly desires; the mistress refuses their marriage and sends the young woman away. The film first follows this plot as the novel tells it, then takes it up again with what the book left unsaid: the work in the fields, the escapes, the sabotage and the visit of a British agent come to verify that the slave trade has ended.
Context
The novel on which the film is based, Francisco, by Anselmo Suárez y Romero, was written in 1838 and 1839 at the instigation of Domingo del Monte, to be handed to Richard Madden, a British official and abolitionist; it was only published in 1880. The screenplay, credited to Julio García Espinosa, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Sergio Giral, first follows its sentimental plot, then sets it against the sugar economy and the conditions of slavery in the Americas, with voice-over and staged interviews, one of them with the author of the book and another with Madden. Cinematography by Livio Delgado, in black and white.
Who it is for
Ninety-seven minutes, in Spanish, black and white. The film is watched in two stages, the sentimental plot first, then its questioning.
Prizes and reception
Best actor prize for Miguel Benavides at the Moscow festival in 1975; the first Cuban feature-length fiction film to make the Black man the central figure of the story.
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