yearbook 2004/05 - The European Film College

stacles/challenges from Cuba: Two weeks before
departure I heard from the very same friends
in Cuba that a tragic incident had happened to
the family – “El Niño”, the eldest son of Don
Robaina and whom he had seen as his successor,
had tragically died from a heart failure. Once
more it was too late to cancel the flight-ticket
and not being able to phone Don Robaina, (as
there are no telephones on the plantation or in
the area), to ask his acceptance of our arrival,
we started out for the plantation once more not
knowing whether we would be allowed to shoot
or not. Arriving with full equipment on the
plantation I paid my condolences to the Don
and asked him permission to portray his grief
in the picture and dedicate the final cut to his
son “El Niño”. I had his and the whole family’s
permission to do so, and we could continue to
shoot Robaina and the family on the plantation
that was now marked by quite a different
and mourning atmosphere. But their grief also
helped us to become even closer to the family
and Don Robaina.
Cuban Lifestyle
Apart from the tragedy in the family, we witnessed
a lot of minor difficulties during, as well
as before the production of the movie. Cuba
is Cuba and Cubans are Cubans! They have a
much more laid back relationship to what we
in our part of the world consider fixed deals
and time-schedules! Everything is “mañana”
and this can be quite frustrating in the beginning,
but as the days pass, you experience a lot
of things that make you tune in to the culture
of the country, you get accustomed to the nontime-fixated
lifestyle that is much more healthy
for body and soul. And which is so soothing for
people from our part of the world where life
is so controlled by our watches. You learn that
you CANNOT plan yourself out of everything
but have to live life in the moment and accept
what comes next. The wonderful lesson in this
is that Cubans in their own quiet and calm way
actually get WORK done – DO things – and
that the workers at the plantation produce the
best tobacco in the whole wide world while they
ALSO have time to sing, dance, drink rum and
have a siesta. We could learn a lot from their
gentle and relaxed – but also hardworking, productive
attitude! The level of stress is very low
and it makes an impact on you and does you
good! Apart from the cultural differences that I
so much wanted to learn from, the communication
to Don Robaina both in pre- and postproduction
was very their difficult because of lack
of communication in their infrastructure – no
telephone in the area, slow mail etc. – so every
time I had important information for him or
had to ask him about something in particular
I had to mail my Havana assistant and ask her
to get into the car and drive the 250 kilometres
down there to talk to Don Robaina. Difficult
but also intriguing and fascinating, I think. I
like challenges like that – especially when they
are over and done with…….
The Story
It was a great personal experience to shoot on the
plantation and especially to be so close to Don
Robaina, his family and the workers. As Don
Robaina is a kind of icon in the Cuban cigar
business a lot of reports, articles, photographic
books and TV-shots have been made about him
– he is such a darling to the camera! But where
everything else that has been made about him (I
am sure they are just as interesting as my movie)
focuses on the icon, the cult-figure and the
more technical details behind the production of
the cigars in Cuba, my film, emphasizes on “the
man behind the icon and the success”, namely
his family and his workers to whom he has a
very close relationship. Don Robaina and the
rest of the family allowed me to get very close to
them. Perhaps they did it because they could feel
that I knew that my principal duty as a director