Feature film
Supporting Roles
Papeles secundarios
Orlando Rojas · 1989
Synopsis
In a Havana theatre company, Rosa Soto, a great actress in decline, brings the director Alejandro Rivas back from his exile in Camagüey to stage Réquiem por Yarini, by Carlos Felipe. During rehearsals, a culture official, López-Treto, sets about provoking betrayals within the company, and Alejandro must choose between Rosa and his own position. Mirta, a gifted actress who is not allowed to perform, lives through these backstage manoeuvres along with the rest of the company.
Context
The play the company is rehearsing is a classic by Carlos Felipe, and the screenplay bears his name beside that of Osvaldo Sánchez. The film, co-produced by Cuba and Spain and photographed by Raúl Pérez Ureta, brings together Rosa Fornés, Juan Luis Galiardo, Luis Pérez Nieto and Ernesto Tapia. Orlando Rojas's second feature-length fiction film, it was presented at the Sundance festival in 1991, and Cuba submitted it for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the sixty-second ceremony, without it being selected among the nominees.
Who it is for
Nearly two hours, in Spanish. It helps to know that the Sundance festival read in it a metaphor for the Cuba of its time, through the life of a theatre company.
Prizes and reception
Best Cuban film of the eighties according to the island's critics, and included among the hundred best Latin American films of all time.
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