Section: Focus

Preludio 11

Kurt Maetzig

GDR, Cuba, 1963, 86 Min

Americans have a plan to end the Caribbean island's socialist experiment; under the codename “Preludio 11” a handful of Cuban exiles are to penetrate inland and blow up a strategically important bridge. It soon comes to light however that traitors and spies are also to be found amongst the Cuban revolutionaries.

DEFA-Stiftung

Espionage, revolution and counter-revolution, this is Cuba, one of the focal points in the military tension between East and West. In 1961, few days before the attempted Bay of Pigs invasion, a commando of emigrants and adventurers, commanded by an American officer, enters Cuba under the cover of night. They are to destroy a bridge and prepare the ground for a larger-scale counter-revolutionary mission. These individuals fail however to reckon with the loyalty that everyday Cubans feel towards the revolution. PRELUDIO 11 narrates a tale of unconventional warfare, betrayal and sabotage, as well as love for the revolution and a beautiful woman unwilling to betray her ideals.

Shot by director Kurt Maetzig on Cuba in 1963, the German-Cuba spy film enjoyed its debut screening in Havana in January 1964, and was screened in East German cinemas starting in March of the same year. PRELUDIO 11 takes its name from the novel by Wolfgang Schreyer. WMH

Filmformat
DVD | s/w / b/w

Drehbuch
Wolfgang Schreyer

Kamera
Günter Haubold

Ton
Bernd Gerwien

Schnitt
Bärbel Weigel

Ausstattung
Alfred Hirschmeier

Musik
Marta Valdés

Darsteller
Armin Mueller-Stahl, Aurora Depestre, Günther Simon, Roberto Blanco, Gerry Wolff, Carlos Moctezuma, Günter Ott

Produzent
Hans Mahlich, Margarita Alexandre

Produktion
DEFA

Co-Produktion
ICAIC

Kontakt
Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen
Potsdamer Straße 2
10785 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: +49.30.300.90 30
info@deutsche-kinemathek.de
www.deutsche-kinemathek.de

Kurt Maetzig - born 1911 in Berlin, died 2012 in Bollewick-Wildkuhl, Germany. He was co-founder, joint license holder and board member of DEFA film studio. He spent his student years between Munich and Paris studying chemistry, economics, sociology, psychology and law. After co-founding DEFA in 1946 he started shooting documentary films, with his debut feature film following the year after.

Movies
EINHEIT SPD – KPD (1946, short, doc)
EHE IM SCHATTEN (1947)
DIE BUNTKARIERTEN (1949)
DER RAT DER GÖTTER (1950)
SCHLÖSSER UND KATEN (1957)
DAS KANINCHEN BIN ICH (1965)

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