In May 1968, just nine years after the Cuban Revolution, filmmaker Saul Landau was invited to join Fidel Castro in Cuba for an unprecedented in-depth interview.
Over a week, Landau and Castro traveled through the island’s mountainous terrain through various settings, from military camps to a pickup baseball game to Castro’s speech on the 15th anniversary of his attack on Fort Moncada which marked the beginning of the Revolution. Landau captured an unparalleled time into the relationship of the Cuban people with their popular leader, at a time when the country was being transformed internally while internationally vilified.
Recently restored and remastered by the National Film Preservation Foundation, Fidel was completed in 1969 using fascinating footage from Cuba’s National Archive. The film’s release in the U.S. was met with violence in several cities, although it is now considered a classic documentary.
