Juan of the Dead earns Goya award

Progreso Semanal/RPA

HAVANA – The film “Juan de los Muertos” (Juan of the Dead) ran away with the Goya award for the best Ibero-American film. The Goya awards rank among the most important prizes in the cinema world. The movie is a Spanish-Cuban coproduction.

“Juan de los Muertos,” a film dealing with the appearance of zombies in Havana, contains some social criticism. It was directed by Alejandro Brugues. The main role was played by Alexis Díaz de Villegas, to many specialized critics the best actor on the island. The two men were in Madrid attending the awards ceremony.

“We kill your dear ones” is the slogan of the “company” founded by Juan to “exterminate” the zombies for varying prices (if the clients are foreigners, the price goes up.) Faced with the choice of leaving in a car rebuilt into a motorboat or remaining on the island facing the zombies, Juan decides to stay in his homeland and fight in his own way, because “I am a survivor.”

The film, which was coproduced by the independent Cuban group Quinta Avenida, won prizes at the 2011 International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana and the Miami Film Festival.