Capital Celluloid 2022 — Day 259: Tue Sep 20

The Last Supper (Alea, 1976): Barbican Cinema, 6.30pm

This film is part of the 'Cinema Restored' season at the Barbican and will be introduced by Cuban film expert Michael Chanan. Full details here.

Time Out review:
A brilliant Godardian parable, reflecting the contemporary Cuban situation through a tale of a slave revolt on a sugar plantation in late 18th century Havana (historically, the moment when the old slave-based industry was under pressure from the new mechanised European techniques of sugar refining, and when the heady scent of freedom was sniffed in the air). The action takes place over the days of Easter, culminating when a rich, fanatically religious landowner reconstructs the Last Supper with twelve slaves. But when the slaves' response theatens his economic interests, the pious Christian suppresses the uprising. This complex indictment of religious hypocrisy and cultural colonisation reflects the same subtlety as Alea's earlier Memories of Underdevelopment.
Lynda Myles

Here (and above) is an extract.

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