IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 104

The film was shot in black and white.
For more than three decades, it was the
only feature film shot by a woman in
Cuba. After undergoing a complex
technological process in Swedish
laboratories for transferring from 16mm
to 35mm format, it became a classic of
Cuban cinema by bringing a still
unmatched view of the deep Cuba and
revealing —in this scenario full unveils
the traumas, conflicts and frustrations—
certain human and ethical values rarely
recognized in the traditional or official
symbolic images.
This restless creative woman died
prematurely. As diligent researcher of
both the African cultural roots and the
social problems of the poorest, she had
to face the enormous challenges of
being a young, black, and sick woman
and mother to reflect —without
ornaments
or
makeups—
such
uncomfortable issues as racism,
marginalization, and the harshest reality

of the ordinary women. Thusly, she
bequeathed to posterity a free account
about the taboos and masks in the Cuba
she happened to live.
It seems that, more than forty years after
that personal attachment to identity, her
consequent authenticity, her strong
criteria always reluctant to concessions,
and her ability to create with a sense of
transcendent force are still too
intolerable for the Cuban authorities.
They persist in denying Sara the
recognition and dissemination she
deserves.
Even so, he has become an obligatory
reference and a motivating inspiration
for many artists and scholars on the
Cuban reality and cinema, both in the
Isle and abroad. Her admirers and
followers pay constant tribute to this
woman who, with clarity and
personality, knew how to show us the
essence of identity and the most
sensitive humanism.

103