Cuba Libre

A neatly crafted homage addressed to one of Serra’s idols and main sources of inspiration, prolific German director Reiner Werner Fassbinder. The 18-minute short film is set in a decadent, yet seductive nightclub (a trademark symbol in Fassbinder’s filmography), featuring characters and depicting motifs that seem to stem directly out the Fassbinder universe. The film’s title is not by chance either, as it pays a delicate tribute to Hanna Schygulla’s favorite drink in the movie Beware of a Holy Whore (1971).

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Albert Serra

Cinematography: Miquel Barceló, Artur Tort

Editing: Àngel Martín

Sound: Joan Pons, Jordi Ribas

Music: Molforts

Actors: Xavier Gratacós, Lluís Serrat, Albert Serra, Wolfgang Danz, Lluís Carbó

Producers: Montse Triola

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: Spain

Production Year: 2013

Duration: 18΄

Contact: Andergraun Films

Albert Serra

Born in Banyoles in 1975, Albert Serra is a Catalan artist and director. Having studied philosophy and literature, he wrote plays and produced different video works. He gained international recognition with his first long feature, Honor of the Knights, a free adaptation of Don Quijote played by non-professional actors from his village. The film was presented at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2006. For his second film, Birdsong, Serra took inspiration from a traditional Catalan Christmas song, El cant dels ocells, and worked with the same group of people to tell the story of the Three Wise Men following their guiding star to find Jesus. In 2013, the Centre Pompidou in Paris gave him a carte blanche for correspondence with the Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso. The same year he received the Golden Leopard in Locarno for his new film Story of my Death, inspired by Casanova’s memoirs. The Death of Louis XIV starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the Sun King was presented in the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival 2016. Liberté, starring Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Baptiste Pinteaux, is the cinematic recreation of his 2018 Berlin Volksbühne play of the same name, which won the Special Jury award at the 2019 Un Certain Regard selection at Cannes. In 2022, he returned to Cannes in the Official Competition Section, with Pacifiction.