ABSTRACT
After completing Memories of Underdevelopment, Alea finally felt that he was ready to tackle the twice-postponed project of adapting Fernando Ortiz's A Cuban Fight against Demons. The mastery of Memories dispelled any lingering doubts he may have had about his own and his coworkers' readiness, both technical and formal, to embark on this ambitious project. Moreover, the favorable reception of that film convinced Alea that the public was ready for an even more complex one. A Cuban Fight against Demons is, in effect, Alea's most complex and brilliant film in terms of form, but it is also the most difficult to follow. People simply did not understand what was going on, and Alea realized that, at least on this count, the film had failed.
[What I like least about A Cuban Fight& ] is that people ask me the meanings of the film because they can't figure out its purpose, its general superobjective. That leaves me very frustrated and puts me in the position of having to explain the film—which is something I detest…because if the film does not effectively speak for itself, there's nothing to be done. A Cuban Fight… fails in the communication of a clear idea, it suffers from a problem of cinematographic narration. 1
