One Holy Thursday towards the end of the 18th century, a pious and rich plantation owner in Havana gathers twelve of his slaves and washes and kisses their feet. He then invites them to supper. During the meal, he speaks with them and tries to justify the exploitation they are submitted to by appealing to the principles of humility and resignation preached by the Catholic Church.
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Cuban filmmaker born in Havana in 1928 and died on the island in 1996. He studied Law before training in Film Directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he founded the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) together with other young filmmakers. He directed documentaries such as ‘This Land Is Ours’ (1959) and a year later filmed ICAIC's first feature-length fiction film, ‘Stories of the Revolution’. With ‘Death of a Bureaucrat’ (1966) he won the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where he bagged the Critics' Award two years later for ‘Memories of Underdevelopment’. ‘The Last Supper’ (1976) earned him the Golden Columbus Award at the Huelva Film Festival and the Audience Award in Sao Paulo, while ‘The Survivors’ (1979) competed at the Cannes Film Festival and ‘Strawberry & Chocolate’ (1993) earned him an Oscar nomination, as well as winning the Special Jury Prize at Berlin and the Goya Award. His last feature film, ‘Guantanamera’ (1995), won an award at Sundance and participated in the Official Selection at Venice.
DIRECTOR
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
SCREENPLAY
Tomás González Pérez, María Eugenia Haya, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mario García Joya
EDITOR
Nelson Rodríguez
SOUND
Germinal Hernández Veitía
MUSIC
Leo Brouwer
PRODUCTION
Santiago Llapur Milián, Camilo Vives
CAST
Nelson Villagra, Silvano Rey, Luis Alberto García, José Antonio Rodríguez, Samuel Claxton, Mario Balmaseda, Idelfonso Tamayo, Julio Hernández
