Cuba / 2003 / 80mins / Documentary / Spanish

A poetic homage to the city of Havana, this breathtaking film portrays Cuba’s capital as no other art form has before. A loving and melancholic picture over a 24 hour period of life of this city, the film follows ten ordinary Habaneros as they go about their daily routine. There is no dialogue and no need for it either; music and natural sound accompany the multiplicity of images that weave a unique and intimate picture of a city full of contradictions and contrasts, a city of accomplished and frustrated dreams. Edited like a musical composition, Suite Habana oscillates between documentary and fiction. The ten characters range from ages 10 to 97, and represent the diversity of groups that form the city’s social fabric. Each of them follows a narrative, and we follow their transformations as the workday ends and they prepare themselves to welcome the night, which brings about the daily renewal of this exceptional and fascinating city.

Fernando Pérez

Fernando Pérez Valdés, born 1944, is a prominent Cuban film director. Pérez graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in Language and Spanish Literature, and began working in the Cuban film industry in 1971 as an assistant director, before directing his first documentary in 1975. His feature debut was the drama Clandestinos (1987) but it was not until Madagascar (1994) that he garnered significant international recognition. Pérez later directed La Vida es Silbar (1998) and Suite Habana (2003). Suite Habana is considered by some critics to be the best Cuban film in decades. Variety hailed it as "A lyrical, meticulously-crafted and unexpectedly melancholy homage to the battered but resilient inhabitants of a battered but resilient city." His 2007 film called Madrigal tells a story about life in the theater world. His next film was biopic that covered the childhood and early teenage years of Cuban national hero Jose Marti entitled, Marti: El ojo del Canario, which premiered in 2010 and earned several awards within the film festival circuit. His other films include La Pared de las Palabras (2014), Ultimos Dias en la Habana (2016) and Insumisa (2018). Learn More