Humberto Bárbaro Solás Borrego (4 December 1941 – 17 September 2008) was a Cuban film director. Most known for Lucía (1968), which explored the lives of Cuban women during different periods in Cuban history.
Career Solás cinematic style borrows from Luchino Visconti's mise en scene and is permeated by sometimes heavy melodrama. He started making shorts at a very young age and directed his first medium length film Manuela in 1967. The success of this film led him to direct Lucía, told in three stories from three different moments of Cuban history, each seen through the eyes of a different woman named Lucia.
Solás won 13 awards for filmmaking and has been nominated for an additional nine. His 1968 film Lucía won the Golden Prize and the Prix FIPRESCI at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival. His 1985 film A Successful Man was entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival.
In 1977 he was a member of the jury at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. He served on the jury twice at the Berlin International Film Festival, in 1977 and 1997. In 2003, he founded Gibara's Poor Cinema Festival, "open to filmmakers with limited funds". Solás was awarded Cuba's National Film Prize in 2005.
Humberto Solás died of cancer on September 17, 2008, at the age of 66.
Filmography Solás directed twenty-four films, from La Huida in 1959 to Barrio Cuba and Adela in 2005, wrote twelve and produced one. The following is an incomplete filmography: 1958: La Huida 1963: El refrato (short)Filmihulluno 6/1970 p. 22 1964: El Acoso (short) 1967: Manuela 1968: Lucía 1972: Un dia de noviembre 1975: Cantata de Chile 1981: Cecilia 1986: Un hombre de exito 1991: 2001: 2005: Barrio Cuba 2005: Adela
References
External links
The Independent: Humberto Solas: Director who told the stories of Cuba's struggles under Castro