The Cuba Libre Story
(German Title: Geheimes Kuba)
An 8x 52’/43′ documentary series, written & directed by Florian Dedio, Kai Christiansen, Emmanuel Amara
Cuba – the island where dreams clash. It was the gateway to the New World, the port of call for the American underworld, a crossroads for drug smuggeling.
It has brought us cigars, sugar and rum. And a Socialist Revolution: Cuba stands for schools for everybody, and an eternal struggle for freedom.
Cuba may seem synonymous with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, but its history was shaped by adventurer Christopher Columbus, freedom fighter José Martí, Dictator Fulgenico Batista, Mafia Boss Meyer Lansky and many others.
“The Cuba Libre Story” tells Cuba’s complete history – looking back at 500 years before the Castro Brothers, and ahead at what will come after them.
The series weaves together over 50 exclusive interviews with the most important experts and eyewitnesses of Cuban history – both from within and outside the island with never-before-seen archive footage.
All footage has been newly scanned, digitally restored and re-mastered, from the Spanish-American War of 1898, which was the first war in history ever to be filmed.
We hear from Juan Antonio Rodriguez Menier, former chief of Castro’s secret service and Nikolai Leonov, head of the KGB in Latin America from 1953 onwards (and Vladimir Putin’s former boss and mentor), from Marita Lorenz, Castro’s former lover and Carlos Calvo, Castro’s former bodyguard.
We hear from Cynthia Duncan, granddaughter of Mafia boss Meyer Lansky, Leonardo Padura, Cuba’s most famous novelist and Egon Krenz, East Germany’s last head of state and personal friend of the Castro brothers.
Cuba’s complete history – in 8 Episodes:
1. Breaking Chains
2. War and Sugar
3. Ganster’s Paradise
4. A Ragtag Revolution
5. Making Heroes
6. Of Soviets and Saviors
7. Secrets and Sacrifices
8. Moments of Transition
How do you even begin to tell the history of a country as controversial as Cuba? How do you separate fact from fiction? What information, or even what archive footage can you trust?
Journeying through Cuba’s tumultuous past was certainly an adventure, and I’m grateful to have gotten the chance to do so, along with my co-authors Kai and Emmanuel.
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Written & Directed By: Emmanuel Amara, Kai Christiansen, Florian Dedio
Camera: Emeric Nicolas, Yuriy Gorbunov, Igor Korotkiy, Pavel Medvedev, Jens T. Wagner
Producers: Gunnar Dedio (LOOKS) Grégory Schnebelen (Interscoop), Igor Prokopenko (Format TV)
Creative Producers: Regina Bouchehri, Louis-David Delahaye, Birgit Rasch, Olga Zatulkina
Edited By: Markus Thüne, Ursula Pürrer, Stefan Leuschel, Jan-Timo Sonnemann
Music: Jean-Claude Mejstelman
Commissioning Editors: Susanne Krause-Klinck (ZDFinfo), Christian Deick (ZDFinfo)
