Alberto deals with the difficult issue of the reunion in rural Cuba between two brothers, played by Yasmany Guerrero and Jorge Martínez, after the emigration of one of them. The relationship with the deceased father and the circumstances of his sudden death is a mystery that must be solved too. Now, after many years, the brothers have little time left to reconcile.

Everything in this short matches: the in medias res flashback that includes tv and documentary video material, the stormy weather starts just as the protagonist reaches his hometown and the gloomy and sinister atmosphere at his parents’ home.

Director of Photography and Director Raúl Prado Rodríguez relied on a script by Eduardo del Llano, who is mostly known as author and director of Cuban and Spanish comedies but who has also tried universal dramas (VINCI) and who does a new attempt to cover drama from a Cuban perspective.

Raúl Prado lives in Havana and works as a cinematographer, in addition to several shorts by the author and comedy director Eduardo del Llano. Within the framework of the Cuba im Film Festival, the new short by Eduardo del Llano Dos Veteranos is presented, together with Alberto.

The 25th Festival Cuba im Film due to the pandemic takes place in October at the Filmforum Höchst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Cuba im Film presents the classics and the most recent Cuban movies in Germany.

In the interview Raúl Prado answers questions about the project and shooting.

The stormy weather adds to the setting for this highly dramatic tale. Did the team and the protagonist (Yasmany Guerrero) really endure such a heavy rain during filming?

Yes, indeed the rains and storms were intense, and the entire team was exposed to them during the film shooting. Coincidentally, the storm was called Alberto, so I don't think we would not have found a better time, or a better storm, to film and achieve the atmosphere we were looking for.

Alberto, as a short film, is presented as a finished story and suggests a rather uncertain perspective on the future and the new generations in Cuba. Your film suggests to me that the new generations shall learn not only from the bitter stories of adults, but above all from beauty and arts. Do you agree on this?

Yes, it seems essential to me to learn from our history and not just the history written in the official books, since it is written by the winners and is full of interests that limit the construction of a country for each and everyone. Art is the vehicle I have found to write this history.

Do you consider your debut Alberto a finished work or is it rather the basis for a larger project in the future?

I have been asked this same question before, but I had not seen it that way. Perhaps I should do it and delve deeper into that story.

Raúl Prado lives in Havana and works as a cinematographer, in addition to several shorts by the author and comedy director Eduardo del Llano. Within the framework of the Cuba im Film Festival, the new short by Eduardo del Llano Dos Veteranos is presented, together with Alberto.

The 25th Festival Cuba im Film due to the pandemic takes place in October at the Filmforum Höchst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Cuba im Film presents the classics and the most recent Cuban movies in Germany.