This first comedy of the revolution and the first feature film by the godfather of revolutionary Cuban cinema, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, is this cunning adaptation of a comic novel from the early years of the USSR by Ilf and Petrov.

The madcap plot concerns the hunt for family jewels hidden by a wealthy Cuban matriarch before she died, in one of a set of 12 dining chairs which have been sold off individually. Son-in-law Hipólito and his former chauffeur Oscar both embark on a desperate adventure to find the ‘treasure’ before each other or the state does. They struggle to understand the new Cuban society, its rejection of class status, individual wealth and not to mention the maze of new official state organisations – a mix of real and imagined.

When the movie was made the revolution in Cuba was only 2 years old, filming had to be paused in April 1961 when the US attacked at Playa Girón, and the impact of the new US blockade was overwhelming. For a newly liberated country in those circumstances to be able to laugh at itself in this joyful way is astonishingly confident. Conventions of silent movies, slapstick, animation and social realism are all evident in this unmissable first comedy of the revolution.

Screen Cuba 15-28 March 2026 will be showing 12 Chairs in the programme.

Details coming soon.