Revolución a la Cubana

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Note of intent

We met Edith Gombos in 2003 and formed a friendship, based around filmed encounters. She told us the adventures of a life filled with twists and turns. In 2015, she died, leaving us with the desire follow her path to Cuba. All the more so, in order to film those who knew her, but also to grasp what Cubans aspire to at the dawn of this new era. Create a play of mirrors between the Cuba full of promises of 1959, and the Cuba of today. Understand its complexity. Different times, different expectations.

Synopsis

In June 1959, 6 months after the beginning of the revolution, Edith Depestre (born Gombos), lands in Cuba. A speaker of 8 languages, she becomes Fidel Castro’ interpreter. Attracted by the enthusiasm generated by the revolution, Sagan, Sartre, de Beauvoir; the French “intelligentsia,” flock to Havana. The young Hungarian translates, listens, learns; a privileged witness in the eye of the revolutionary storm.
Today, after the death of Fidel Castro, Cuba is about to enter a new and different kind of revolution. Retrace the footsteps of Edith Gombos, to facilitate meetings with Cubans who knew this era, listen to their version of a time when the world awaited the next phase of the “revolution’s honeymoon.”

Visual concept

The idea is to confront the Cuba of 1959 to 66 (when Edith decides to abandon the regime of which she disapproves), with the Cuba of today. This involves weaving a fabric of images, sounds, texts of the period (Edith’s personal archives as well as Cuban archives) with meetings made today. Filming people in conversation (in family, in unexpected locations…), rather than being interviewed.