Lucía

Humberto Solas's 1968 film tells the stories of three women all named Lucia, in three separate historical periods: the 1890s, the 1930s and the post-revolutionary sixties. The three sections do not connect; what they share is the name and each woman's conflict with the social order around her. Each section is shot in a different cinematic language. The first is heightened and melodramatic, the second colder and more realist, the third shifts toward comedy and handheld camera. That change of form is the film's most striking feature and is used to carry the political narrative of the moment. It is among the best-known works of Cuban revolutionary cinema. It defends the gains of the revolution, but in the third section it also shows that a woman's position at home has not changed. That is a small but real space of criticism opened inside the official account. Who it's for: those interested in Latin American political cinema and formal experiment. Who it's not for: viewers who want to commit to one story; the three sections are independent and the total running time is long.