Renowned Cuban filmmaker Enrique Pineda Barnet died this morning in Havana at age 87. He was best known for his 1989 film The Beauty of the Alhambra / La bella del Alhambra, which was Cuba’s Oscar submission and was the winner of Spain’s Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film.
Born in Havana in 1933, Pineda Barnet worked as a writer, journalist, screenwriter, actor, director, and professor. He joined the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) in 1962, where he directed documentaries, including Giselle (1963), documenting the performance of acclaimed dancer Alicia Alonso of the ballet of the same name. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1964 seminal film I Am Cuba / Soy Cuba directed by the Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov.
In 1964 he shot the short Cosmorama, which is considered a precursor of contemporary video art and marked a milestone in Cuban cinema as the first experimental short of the Caribbean island and is part of the permanent collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain.
Pineda Barnet directed numerous films including Mella (1977), That Long Night / Aquella larga noche (1979), Tiempo de amar (1983), La anunciación (2008), and Verde verde (2012),
In 1989 he directed the period musical drama The Beauty of the Alhambra, which became his most popular film, breaking box office records in the island following its premiere. Starring Beatriz Valdés, Omar Valdés, César Évora, and Carlos Cruz, and based on the novel Canción de Rachel by Miguel Barnet, the film is set in the twenties and tells the story of Rachel, a young and ambitious showgirl of the most popular theater in Havana at the time. The film received over fifty national and international awards.
Pineda Barnet also taught classes in Puerto Rico, Spain, the United States. In 2006, he was awarded with the National Film Award by the Cuban Ministry of Culture and ICAIC; he also received the Chevalier de l 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government; and more recently, the Havana Film Festival gave him a special Coral Award of Honor for lifetime achievement in 2016.
