Suite Habana is a 2003

2003 in film

The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

 Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n documentary directed by Fernando Pérez

Fernando Pérez

Fernando Pérez Valdés 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...

.

The documentary was filmed with fictional cinema techniques depicting a day in a life of thirteen real people, from a ten-year-old child with Down Syndrome

Down syndrome

Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...

 to a 79-year-old lady who sells peanuts in the street.

The film has no dialogue, using sound and image to evoke emotional effect. Several stories are juxtaposed to convey the plot points, an unusual approach in Cuban cinema, where spoken words are often used extensively.

Critical reception

After the film's premiere in Cuba, national critics ranked it as one of the best Cuban films in decades. The film gathered several awards at international film festivals. Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

called it "A lyrical, meticulously crafted and unexpectedly melancholy homage to the battered but resilient inhabitants of a battered but resilient city."

Awards

HAVANA FILM FESTIVAL - 2003

• Best Director
• Best Music
• Best Sound
• Best Film Poster
• FIPRESCI
  FIPRESCI
  The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
  
   prize
• Grand Coral - First Prize

UPEC Cultural Circle Award

Goya Awards (Spanish Academy Awards) - 2004

• Candidate to the Best Spanish Language Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera de Habla Hispana)

Gramado Film Festival - 2004

• Kikito Critics Prize
• Special Jury Award

Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival - 2003

• SIGNIS Award

Cuban Press Association Award
El Mégano Award

• for its courageous vision of Havana's daily life and its artistic and powerful use of images and sounds

Glauber Rocha Award

Martin Luther King Memorial Center Award