Cast

The Count, played by Nelson Villagra

Also Featuring

Silvano Rey, Luis Alberto García, José A. Rodríguez, Samuel Claxton, Mario Balsameda, Idelfonso Tamayo, Julio Hernández, Tito Junco, Andrés Cortina, Manuel Puig, Francisco Borroto, Alfredo O’Farril, Mario Acea, Peki Pérez, Mirta Ibarra, José Díaz, Elio Mesa, Luis Salvador Romero, Leandro M. Espinosa

Crew

Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Director’s assistants: Constante Diego, Zita Morrina, and Roberto Viña

Script: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Screenplay: Tomás González and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, with collaboration from

María Eugenia Haya and Constante Diego

Director of Photography: Mario García Joya

Camera operators: Mario García Joya, Julio Valdés

Music: Leo Brouwer

Sound: Germinal Hernánez

Editing: Nelson Rodríguez

Scenography: Carlos Arditti

Wardrobe Design: Jesús Ruiz, Lidia Lavallet

Make-up: Magdalena Alvarez and Marta Rosa Vinent

Head of production: Santiago Llapur, Camilo Vives

Produced by: Cuban Cinema Institute

Awards

Golden Columbus Jury’s Prize, III Week of Latin American Cinema, Huelva, Spain, 1976

First Golden Hugo Prize, XIII International Film Festival, Chicago, USA, 1977

Notable Film of the Year, London Film Festival, UK, 1977

Best Foreign Film exhibited in Venezuela, Venezuelan Film Critics, Caracas, 1978

Grand Prize, VII International Film Cinema, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, 1978

First Prize, Iberian and Latin American Film Festival, Biarritz, France, 1978

Plot

The film is set just after the Haitian revolution of 1795 on a sugar plantation in Cuba, taking place over Holy Week. Wednesday in Holy Week. The Count of Casa Bayona arrives at the plantation and hears from his overseer (mayoral) that a slave has escaped. Tour of the sugar refinery in which the Count is introduced to the educated French sugarmaster, Don Gaspar. Cut to a scene in which Manuel drags the runaway slave (Sebastián) back to the plantation, and cuts his ear off, throwing it to the dogs to eat it. The Count – taken aback by this barbarity – decides to make amends by treating his slaves better, and in particular by re-enacting the Last Supper. In the chapel the Count washes the slaves’ feet, echoing the Last Supper. Manuel leaves the chapel in disgust. Maundy Thursday. The Count wines and dines his twelve ‘disciples’ in a re-enactment of the Last Supper. The Count has Sebastián seated on his right hand side, but Sebastián spits in his face.