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The King of Havana
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| native_name =
| director = Agust Villaronga
| screenplay = Agust Villaronga
| producer = Luisa Matienzo
| based_on =
| starring =
| country =
| language = Spanish
| cinematography = Josep M Civit
| editing = Ral Romn
| music = Joan Valent
| distributor = Filmax
| studio =
| released =
}}
'The King of Havana' is a 2015 Spanish-Dominican drama film directed by Agust Villaronga which adapts Pedro Juan Gutirrez's dirty realist novel 'El rey de La Habana'. It stars Maykol David Tortolo, Yordanka Ariosa and Hctor Medina. It is set in the Cuban capital during the Special Period.
Plot
Set in the Cuban capital during the Special Period, Reynaldo ('Rey'), returns to his old home in the wake of his release from a juvenile prison, and wanders around Old Havana, meeting with prostitutes Magda and Yunisleidi.
Cast
Production
A joint Spain-Dominican Republic co-production, the film was produced by Pandora Cinema, Tusitala, AIE El Rey de La Habana and Esencia Films. Filming began on 16 April 2015 in the Dominican Republic and it had already wrapped by 4 May 2015.
Release
The film screened at the 63rd San Sebastin International Film Festival on 23 September 2015. Distributed by Filmax, it opened in Spanish theatres on 16 October 2015.
Reception
Guy Lodge of 'Variety' deemed the film to be "an unabashedly torrid urban melodrama that will enrapture or repel viewers or, quite possibly, both with its upfront, up-in-your-face excess".
Neil Young of 'The Hollywood Reporter' assessed the film to be "a two-hour immersion in poverty, squalor, sex, violence, prostitution and death", summing up as bottom line: "an extravagantly raunchy wallow in sordid poverty".
Lee Marshall of 'ScreenDaily' considered that the film, guilty of using "shock tactics for effect", "can't help but leave a bad taste in the mouth at the end of its entertainingly sensationalist two-hour ride".
Jordi Costa of 'El Pas', wrote about the film's brutal story, in which "the small outbreaks of human warmth" "make the blunt and desperate outcome to have an outright annihilating effect.
Accolades
|-
| align = "center" | 2015 || 63rd San Sebastin International Film Festival || Silver Shell for Best Actress || Yordanka Ariosa || ||
|-
| align = "center" rowspan = "15" | 2016 || rowspan = "12" | 8th Gaud Awards || colspan = "2" | Best Non-Catalan language Film || || rowspan = "12" |
|-
| Best Director || Agust Villaronga ||
|-
| Best Screenplay || Agust Villaronga ||
|-
| Best Production Supervision || Josep Amors, Carla Jovine ||
|-
| Best Art Direction || Alain Ortiz ||
|-
| Best Editing || Ral Romn ||
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| Best Original Score || Joan Valent ||
|-
| Best Cinematography || Josep Maria Civit ||
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| Best Costume Design || Mara Gil, Sonia Segura ||
|-
| Best Sound || Fernando Novillo, Franklin Hernndez, Ricard Galceran ||
|-
| Best Visual Effects || Bernat Aragons, Llus Rivera ||
|-
| Best Makeup and Hairstyles || Ainhoa Eskisabel ||
|-
| rowspan = "3" | 30th Goya Awards || Best Adapted Screenplay || Agust Villaronga || || rowspan = "3" |
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| Best New Actress || Yordanka Ariosa ||
|-
| Best Cinematography || Josep M Civit ||
|}
See also
* List of Spanish films of 2015
References
Buy The King of Havana now from Amazon
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