On December 7, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation, and Madame Sanja Jayatilleka attended the inaugural screening of the film “The Real Cuba” at the invitation of the Ambassador of Cuba to the Russian Federation, Gerardo Penalver Portal.
Before the film started, Stas Namin, Russian director of the film told the audience about his grandfather, the famous state figure of the Soviet period, Anastas Mikoyan, who befriended Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and was the key negotiator from the Soviet side during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Real Cuba is a documentary revealing the spirit of contemporary life on the island, the spirit of freedom, happiness and joy, reflected in Cuban music and dance together with the ability of people to understand what they stand for and value and respect what they have.
The film has been produced in the form of interviews with Cuban people of different social backgrounds: entrepreneurs, dancers, musicians, sportsmen, priests, farmers and fishermen.
The film was screened at Moscow’s Victory Museum on Great Patriotic War, the international director of the Museum having known that Ambassador Jayatilleka and Madame Jayatilleka attended the event, immediately invited them to see those sections of the Museum that they have not visited previously. Russian news agency TASS that was covering the event expressed the wish to interview Ambassador Jayatilleka soon.
Among the guests there were Major-General of the Soviet Air Force who had trained Cuban pilots on MiG-29, the Ambassador of Algeria, representatives of entrepreneurs’ sector working with Cuba, and many members of the Cuban community. Friendly people, the aroma of Cuban coffee and rum in the air, Cuban music in the lobby all these created the warm atmosphere that kept nobody indifferent.
