“A masterpiece from the first image to the last”

LONDON – ICA – Tue 24 March

LEEDS – Hyde Park PictureHouse – Sun 19 April

The Last Supper / La última cena |Dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1976 | 1hr 53 mins, colour, Spanish with English subtitles

This powerful drama brings a pious sugar plantation owner, in 1790s Cuba, attempting to head off an uprising, to share his table at Easter with 12 enslaved men. A radical and often surreal parable showing slavery as an economic system and championing Black resistance. “A masterpiece from the first image to the last”.

The film was inspired by a real story. The impressive dinner sequence is the structural core of the film: almost an hour, which feels experimental and chaotic. “Let me see if I understand, when overseer beats me, I should be happy?” says one man at the table to the plantation owner.  It is an extraordinary meditation on speech and power, slavery and freedom, submission and rebellion, ideology and oppression, ritual and ethics. 2026 marks its 50th anniversary.

The screening will be introduced by Cuban film specialist, Michael Chanan (author: Cuban Cinema).

Trigger warning Contains images of violence.

Awards:

Awards include Golden Colón Jury Prize at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival; the First Golden Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival; the Grand Prize of the Figueira da Foz International Film Festival, Portugal; the Grand prize of the Peoples Jury at the São Paulo International Film Festival and the First Grand Prize at the Iberian and Latin American Film Festival of Biarritz; 1977 the London International Film Festival chose it as Outstanding Film of the Year.

Review https://hyperallergic.com/decolonizing-cinema-film-forum-the-last-supper/

Trailer