An immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, “utopian” Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This Big Bang ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda. In “Epicentro”, Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana — particularly its children, who he calls “young prophets” — to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself.
Hubert Sauper
Hubert Sauper was born in Kitzbόhel, Tyrolian Alps. Having spent his childhood in Austria, he then lived in Great Britain, Italy, USA, Tanzania, Congo and South Sudan. His “homebase” since the mid ‘90s is France. He studied film directing in Vienna and Paris. Sauper’s socio-political and poetic films have won over 50 major international prizes. His documentary “Darwin’s Nightmare”(2004) was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Documentary, in 2006. His documentary “Epicentro” received the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Βest Documentary at this year's Sundance festival.
