Feature film
Vampires in Havana
¡Vampiros en La Habana!
Juan Padrón · 1985
Synopsis
Havana in the thirties, under the dictator Machado. Pepito, whose real name is Joseph Amadeus von Dracula, plays the trumpet and conspires against the regime; he does not know that he is a vampire able to live in daylight, thanks to the formula his uncle Werner is trying out on him. A Chicago crime syndicate and European vampires, who dream of selling it under the name Vampisol, want to seize it and set off in pursuit of him.
Context
The film is produced by the island's public film body with Spanish television and the German producer Manfred Durniok. The voices are those of Frank González, Manuel Marín, Irela Bravo and Carlos González, and the hero's trumpet is played by Arturo Sandoval. Festival presentations see in it a political satire with a bawdy tone, in which corruption touches gangsters and the powerful alike. A sequel, Más vampiros en La Habana, appears in 2003.
Who it is for
An animated film for adults, in Spanish, with some coarse language and mild nudity; it can be watched without knowing anything about Cuba.
Prizes and reception
Its author received eight Coral prizes in all at the Havana Festival of New Latin American Cinema, and Cuba's National Film Prize in 2008.
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