Lucumi, l'enfant rumbeiro de Cuba (1995)

Overview

A beautiful film by epic music scene film maker Tony Gatlif with Cuban legends Tata Guines and Pancho Quinto, while young Michael Herrera Duarte (Lucumi) stars as the centerpiece of the story. Lucumi is ten and lives in Havana's black district. Brought up to the beat of drums, he dreams of becoming a great rumbero. With other kids on his block he improvises rumbas on old cans and pots and pans. One Saturday the best of Havana's musicians decide to get together at the "Solar California" to honor the memory of Chano Pozo, otherwise known as "the drum of Cuba". With the rumba beat, Lucumi sings, dances, plays and talks about his life, as if better to express the hardships he's already endured and to have his message heard. On this Saturday he joins up with the great rumberos and wakes up the old spirits of the tumbadora.