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THE OLDIES

By Rosana MATECKI

ALACRAN GROUP / ALACRAN PICTURES - as PROD

Art - Culture - Completed 2018

In the city of Santa Clara three elderly Cuban musicians narrate their long lives. They have been working in this city for over forty years. They are old folks who live in an austere country- one now undergoing rapid change- and face life with humor and love, and their music with passion and devotio

Festivals
& Awards

Guadalajara FICG 2018
Miami IFF 2018
MicGenero 2018
Festival De Cine Venezolano 2018
AFI Silver Caribbean Film Festival 2018
Boston Latino FIlm Festival 2018
New Orleans Film Festival 2018
Belize Film Festival 2018
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    • Year of production
    • 2018
    • Genres
    • Art - Culture, Documentary
    • Countries
    • VENEZUELA, UNITED KINGDOM, CUBA
    • Languages
    • SPANISH
    • Budget
    • 0 - 0.3 M$
    • Duration
    • 90 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Rosana MATECKI
    • Writer(s)
    • Rosana MATECKI
    • Producer(s)
    • Rosana MATECKI (Kiiskakuna Production), Giorgia LO SAVIO (JINGA PICTURES)
    • Synopsis
    • The film examines the old age of Bringuez, Zaidita and José, talented and charismatic Cuban musicians who still work in Cuba. The context of the documentary is the splendid old-time Cuban music, and it tells brave, powerful, inspiring human stories about life as elderly people in Cuba, which is a country of long-lived people.
      The characters have lived their lives under this particular Cuban condition, the Cuba that 57 years ago chose to wage a battle for its ideals, something that distanced it from the modern world. Cuba is again on the world’s front pages.
      The story is told from the everyday perspective of these elderly Cuban musicians who still earn their living as in the past, by singing and playing music on public stages in the city of Santa Clara. They all know each other—though sometimes not as well as they think—as a result of such closeness.
      The film takes place in the present, when the country is undergoing a process of transition, where the old ideals have been challenged by a new idea of progress, and now everyone is living in expectation of change.
      This country still lives within an architecture and aesthetic of the 1950s. Cuba has a “look” that powerfully costumes the film and its characters. Elements such as photographs and personal souvenirs, anecdotes, recollections of shows, stories of births and funerals, all enrich the narration of these long lives and evoke nostalgia, the fear of losing them forever.
      The film establishes intimate connections in the daily life of an 86-year-old man named Bringuez, a saxophone player who was a solider in his youth, married for 60 years to Mirtha, his devoted wife. The film observes how she dies in his arms, while he survives thanks to the spirit music brings alive in him.
      The group “Los Fakires” directly connects Bringuez to José, who have played together in this emblematic group for 50 years in what was once a septet, and is now a quartet, waiting for the epoch to carry them off altogether. Emotions and gossip bind them together in this family-like relationship.
      José is 81 years old, the son of Haitian immigrant, a beautiful and strong old man. He loves song, his guitar, and his children and grandchildren. He lives in music and solitude, keeping alive the hope that a great change is around the corner. He still pursues the desire to find love once more.
      At the age of 80, Zaidita, “the Lady of Feeling,” married again. She walks through the town of Santa Clara in the heat of the midday sun wearing high heels and make up, to reach the “El Bosque” social club, the blessing all are awaiting.
      The lives of these elderly artists reveal themselves to the world as an uplifting position from which to observe old age.
      Young people do not think about old age. If modern society could see how to live old age with passion, decision, and truth, then it would not fear it so much. It has forgotten its old people, and this film aims to rescue them.
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