In the tradition of unique Cuban Cinema, The Booby Prize is the latest film from the filmmaker who opened the inaugural Sydney Latin American Film Festival
Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti, Iraida Malberti, 2009, 2010, Feature, Cuba, Guatemala, 112min, Spanish with English subtitles
In a Cuban slum town in 1958, Iluminada Pacheco the former clown of a travelling circus and wife of a sword-swallower enthusiastically gives her humble belongings away after wining a new house in a “Rina Soap” sweepstakes. After enduring a husband who doesn’t love her and who makes her suffer the hardship of living in a smelly hovel, she begins to destroy everything she no longer needs following her glorious windfall. Months later, Iluminada’s life takes a tragic turn and she finds herself in a worse position than ever before but still she naively continues to believe in the people around her. An adaptation Héctor Quintero´s eponymous play which has been staged in Cuba and around the world to rave reviews, Cremeta Malberti’s film shows it is possible to find laughter in a world when everything around you falls apart.
