EPICENTRO
#de Der neueste Dokumentarfilm des Oscar®-nominierten Regisseurs Hubert
Sauper ist das eindringliche Porträt des „utopischen“ Kuba und seiner unnachgiebigen Bevölkerung, ein Jahrhundert nach der
Explosion der USS Maine in Havanna – ein Ereignis, das neben der Hegemonie des amerikanischen Imperialismus eine weitere Form
der modernen Welteroberung einleitete: das Kino selbst.
#en The latest documentary from Oscar®-nominated director Hubert Sauper is an immersive portrait of «utopian» Cuba and its resilient people a century after the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana, the event that ushered in the American Empire alongside a modern form of world conquest: cinema itself.
#en The latest documentary from Oscar®-nominated director Hubert Sauper is an immersive portrait of «utopian» Cuba and its resilient people a century after the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana, the event that ushered in the American Empire alongside a modern form of world conquest: cinema itself.
#de Ausgehend von der Explosion des amerikanischen Schlachtschiffes
USS Maine 1898 im Hafen von Havanna, die zum Mitauslöser des Krieges zwischen den USA und Spanien wurde, unternimmt Sauper
eine Tour d’Horizon durch Geschichte und Gegenwart Kubas. Das erinnert manchmal an die kinematografischen Essays von Godard,
hat aber doch ein ganz eigenes Aroma. Der Film entfaltet sich als Gedankenstrom und faszinierendes visuelles dérive, in dem
Kindermund Wahrheit kundtut und Mikrogeschichten erzählt werden, die das große Ganze enthalten und nicht selten Widersprüchliches
entbergen. Ein Zauberzirkel, in dem sogar Klischees so gedreht werden, dass sie Erkenntnisschocks produzieren. (Thomas Mießgang
/ Viennale)
#en Hubert Sauper’s new film EPICENTRO is a pained, at times ecstatic, often quietly ironic look at what’s become of the complex national project of independence, equality, and social progress that comprises contemporary Cuba. Sauper roams Havana’s streets, hops on for rides with jaunty European tourists, chats up locals, and follows children, whom he calls “little prophets” in the credits. He thus weaves a contemporary Iliad that takes stock of utopian dreams and permutations of contemporary imperialism, mostly seen through Cubans’ eyes. There’s an irresistible, melancholy beauty in Sauper’s images and in the evocative soundtrack, but also a darkness. Tourism emerges as a plague that deepens oppressive attitudes, rather than a means of encountering the Other or an economic boon. Sauper’s film is all the more poignant and pointed because we enter it through the history of cinema: Children watch films as part of an art program; they bridle at lies in American films about the American-Spanish War, but also dream of acting, glossy foreign magazines, Florida, and Disney. In this sense, as Sauper comments in the voiceover, “the industrial cinema that is produced in Hollywood won the war.” Cinema, as both a dream and an empire’s tool, makes images that invade our minds. (Ela Bittencourt / Viennale)
#en Hubert Sauper’s new film EPICENTRO is a pained, at times ecstatic, often quietly ironic look at what’s become of the complex national project of independence, equality, and social progress that comprises contemporary Cuba. Sauper roams Havana’s streets, hops on for rides with jaunty European tourists, chats up locals, and follows children, whom he calls “little prophets” in the credits. He thus weaves a contemporary Iliad that takes stock of utopian dreams and permutations of contemporary imperialism, mostly seen through Cubans’ eyes. There’s an irresistible, melancholy beauty in Sauper’s images and in the evocative soundtrack, but also a darkness. Tourism emerges as a plague that deepens oppressive attitudes, rather than a means of encountering the Other or an economic boon. Sauper’s film is all the more poignant and pointed because we enter it through the history of cinema: Children watch films as part of an art program; they bridle at lies in American films about the American-Spanish War, but also dream of acting, glossy foreign magazines, Florida, and Disney. In this sense, as Sauper comments in the voiceover, “the industrial cinema that is produced in Hollywood won the war.” Cinema, as both a dream and an empire’s tool, makes images that invade our minds. (Ela Bittencourt / Viennale)
