Cuban presence at Kerala Film Festival in India

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 26 (ACN) Cuba will take part in the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)—to be held in that southern Indian state on December 8 to 12—with the films El Benny, by director Jorge Luis Sánchez; Inocencia, by Alejandro Gil; Martí y el ojo del canario, by Fernando Pérez; El Mayor, by Rigoberto López; Ciudad en Rojo, by Rebeca Chávez; and Contigo Pan y Cebolla, by Juan Carlos Cremata.

Filmmakers Jorge Luis Sánchez and Alejandro Gil, and producer Rosa Valdez, will be guests of the festival, organized by the authorities of Kerala, the Chalachithra State Film Academy, and the Cuban Embassy in India.

Cuban ambassador Alejandro Simancas met with officials of the academy to design the program for the festival, the first of its kind in India, a country that strives to counteract the gross commercial exploitation of cinema. During the meeting, the parties discussed possible cooperation agreements between the Havana International Film Festival and the IFFK, as well as the holding of the Malayalam Film Festival in Cuba, as events like these mark the growing friendly relationship between Kerala and Cuba in fields such as culture and sports.