COMANDANTE

Year: 2003
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Fidel Castro, Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Countries: USA / Spain
Language: Spanish (English subtitles)
UK: 99 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains archive footage of victims of conflict
UK Release Date: 3 October 2003

Synopsis

Oliver Stone turns to an entirely different genre to film an intimate portrait of Fidel Castro, a man who has spent more than half a century on the international stage.

From three days filming in Cuba, Stone has edited down more than 30 hours of interviews and conversations to provide a candid and direct portrait of this leader.

Stone, co-participant in the film as interviewer, shares the risk with Castro of being in the camera eye, creating an intimacy that allows for unique responses from the Cuban leader that would never otherwise have been possible, getting Castro to discuss the state of his country, the present situation of international politics and some thought-provoking details of the 20th century history.

Overall, an illuminating one-on-one, that helps us to a better understanding of how such a small antagonist of the world's greatest superpower has survived for more than four decades.