"Director: Tomas Gutierrez Alea"

• Strawberry & Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) by Alea | DVD | (23/02/2009) from £12.69   |  Saving you £0.30 (2.36%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Groundbreaking and hugely celebrated for numerous reasons Cuba's greatest director Thomas Guiterrez Alea's (Memories Of Underdevlopment) Strawberry And Chocolate (Fresa Y Chocolate) was the first Cuban film ever to receive an Academy Award nomination thanks to its revelatory plot masterful direction and phenomenally crafted performances. Diego a cultivated apolitical sceptical young artist living in Havana initiates a friendship with fiercely communist homophobe David with the intention of seducing him. David knowing this allows the relationship to build so he can spy on a person he sees as aberrant and dangerous to the communist cause. Despite their conflicting sexualities and political ideologies the two slowly build a relationship out of their differences proving that camaraderie and friendship can overcome the most divisive superficialities. An exploration into the seduction of the mind Strawberry And Chocolate shows how politics can shape lives opinions and relationships. Hugely controversial in Cuba even now the film was the first to feature a gay man as the hero while openly criticising the Government and its widespread intolerance. It was this picture that started the dialogue that has only last year allowed Brokeback Mountain to be shown in Havana. Charming nuanced groundbreaking and thought provoking Strawberry And Chocolate is a clear-cut declaration that even in spite of politics love for your fellow man will always triumph if allowed to.

• Memories of Underdevelopment | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £11.75   |  Saving you £6.24 (34.70%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Hailed as one of - if not the most - sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba in the early days of Castro's revolution Memories Of Underdevelopment is visionary Cuban director Toms Gutirrez Alea's tour de force. Memories Of Underdevelopment follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri - Soy Cuba) through his life following the departure of his wife parents and friends in the wake of the 'Bay of Pigs' incident. Alone in a brave new world Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion whilst chasing young women around Havana - before finally meeting Elena (Daisy Granados) a young virgin he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife... but at what cost to himself? Even though director Toms Gutirrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution 'Memories of Underdevelopment' makes a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction still photography and rare documentary footage Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds from the culture of the very subject it is studying; Cuba.

• Memories Of Underdevelopment | Blu Ray | (17/02/2017) from £13.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hailed as one of if not the most sophisticated films ever to come out of Cuba, Memories of Underdevelopment (Memorias Del Subdesarollo) is visionary Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's tour de force. Now, thanks to Mr Bongo Films, the film is set to arrive in a stunningly restored version on UK Blu-ray for the first time. Listed at number fifty-four on Derek Malcolm's 100 Greatest Movies, this cinematic masterpiece has been fully restored using the original camera and sound negative by Cineteca di Bologna with a vintage duplicate provided by the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos. This international initiative to save the film from decay was funded by The George Lucas Family Foundation and the Martin Scorsese-chaired World Cinema Project, founded to provide a resource for those countries lacking archival and technical facilities. Memories of Underdevelopment makes its Blu-ray debut on 20 February 2017. Memories of Underdevelopment follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri Soy Cuba), through his life, following the departure of his wife, parents and friends in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Alone in a brave new world, Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion, before meeting Elena (Daisy Granados), a young woman he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife, but at what cost to himself? Even though director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution, Memories of Underdevelopment offers a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage, Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds off the culture of the very subject it is studying: Cuba. One of the early landmark films of post-revolutionary Cuban cinema, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea said of his 1968 opus: ˜Every day, to build our society, we have to confront the type of people we despise I hope with my film, to annoy, provoke, and upset all of them.'

• 50 Years Of The Cuban Revolution | DVD | (03/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Modern Cuban cinema - borne out of a revolution that took place 50 years ago - is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. To mark the occasion Mr. Bongo Films is releasing a box set of landmark films from this iconic and turbulent nation. Cuban cinema is vibrant and exciting and yet not as widely known as films from other countries - but all that is set to change with the release of 50 Years Of The Cuban Revolution a stunning box set featuring four outstanding films including the never before released on DVD Lucia along with I Am Cuba Memories Of Underdevelopment and Strawberry & Chocolate. There will also be a run of Cuban films at the Barbican commencing on 11 July 2009 full listing below. Shocking moving and above all groundbreaking these four films are the work of esteemed directors Humberto Solas Tom''s Guti''rrez Alea Juan Carlos Tabio and Mikhail Kalatzov and tell outsiders what it means to be Cuban in the past present and future.

• Las Doce Sillas | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £10.92   |  Saving you £4.07 (37.27%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A refugee from the Cuban revolution finds out from his dying mother that jewels have been hidden in one of twelve chairs. He tries with others to recover them.

• The Viva Cuba Collection | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £29.92   |  Saving you £0.07 (0.23%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Titles Comprise: Beloved A Successful Man Cecilia Che Guevara as You have Never Seen Him Before The Death of a Bureaucrat The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin The Twelve Chairs

• Memories Of Underdevelopment by Tomas Alea | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £11.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hailed as one of - if not the most - sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba in the early days of Castro's revolution Memories Of Underdevelopment is visionary Cuban director Tom''s Guti''rrez Alea's tour de force. Memories Of Underdevelopment follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri - Soy Cuba) through his life following the departure of his wife parents and friends in the wake of the 'Bay of Pigs' incident. Alone in a brave new world Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion whilst chasing young women around Havana - before finally meeting Elena (Daisy Granados) a young virgin he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife... but at what cost to himself? Even though director Tom''s Guti''rrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution 'Memories of Underdevelopment' makes a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction still photography and rare documentary footage Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds from the culture of the very subject it is studying; Cuba.

• La Muerte De Una Burocrata | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When a widow's late husband is buried with his union card it's down to her nephew to cut through the red-tape and bureaucracy to retrieve it; otherwise she will not be able to claim a pension.