Madagascar (1994 Film)

''Madagascar'' is a 1994 Cuban film that marked Fernando Pérez's change of direction into a more lyrical approach to filmmaking, somehow stripped from the realistic documentary feel of his early work. The film chronicles the relationship and lack of communication between a mother and daughter during the Cuban economic crisis known as the Special Period.

Background and plot synopsis

''Madagascar'' was originally conceived as the first part of a trilogy to be entitled 'Pronóstico del tiempo' ("Weather Prediction"). The production and post-production of director Fernando Pérez's third fiction film was completed in September 1993 to await the preparation of the work's other two parts: 'Melodrama' ("Melodrama," dir. Rolando Díaz) and 'Quiéreme y verás' ("Love me and you’ll see," dir. Daniel Díaz Torres). The three directors had worked together to develop their ideas for the creation of the project, but in the end, according to Pérez, the films wound up lacking the necessary continuity necessary to bind them together. Partly as a result of such concerns over their contents, and partly in response to the delays caused by an ongoing shortage of production funds for Díaz's and Díaz Torres' works, each film ended up being released independently. During December 1994, over one year after the completion of its post-production, Madagascar first appeared in Cuba's theatres as part of the annual New Latin American Film Festival held in Havana").

The creators of the film bore the circumstances of its production admirably well. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, ICAIC had imported all of its film and development chemicals from the USSR and its economic allies. The lack of chemicals on the island after 1991 forced ''Madagascar''’s production unit to mail all of their negatives to a lab in Venezuela, making "dailies," or the practice of reviewing each day's shooting and then re-filming whatever did not turn out as planned, impossible. Despite being forced to "shoot blind," as it were, Pérez maintains that he and his crew did not lack any truly fundamental supplies (besides gasoline, which was in scarce supply throughout the island by mid-1993). Nevertheless, the director did believe at the time that it would be his last film and such conditions may have played a significant role in the development of the film's style and plot.

To date, ''Madagascar'' and the other pieces intended to make up "Pronóstico del tiempo" remain some of the last films to receive all of their production funds exclusively from el Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos ( ICAIC, the "Cuban Institute for the Film Art and Industry"). During the early 1990s, the Cuban economy had fallen on hard times and ICAIC's budget suffered accordingly. By 1995, the small, semi-autonomous, national industry that had been producing independent works since 1959 had to restructure itself to meet the demands of the international market. Co-productions with outside organizations, intended for release in foreign markets became the only available means of survival.

Awards

- Berlin International Film Festival - Caligari Film Award

- Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival - Golden Dolphin

- Fribourg International Film Festival - Grand Prix

- Havana Film Festival - ARCI-NOVA Award Fernando Pérez

- Cuban Press Association Award - FIPRESCI Prize - Special Mention - Special Jury Prize

- Sundance Film Festival - Latin America Cinema Award

See also

* List of Cuban films
* Cinema of Cuba

Sources

Chanan, Michael. ''Cuban Cinema.'' Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota Press, 2004.

García Borrero, Juan Antonio. ''Guía Crítica Del Cine Cubano de Ficción.'' La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Arte y Literatura, 2001.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Madagascar (1994 Film)
1994 films
Cuban drama films
1990s Spanish-language films
Films scored by Edesio Alejandro