
Directing
Fernando Pérez
Born
1944-11-19 (81)
Place of birth
Havana, Cuba
Known for
Directing
Credits
24 titles
Fernando Pérez Valdés (born November 19, 1944; Havana) is a Cuban film director and writer, with a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature from the University of Havana. He has taught Film Appreciation and Film History courses at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños. Since 1962 he has been linked to cinema, first as a production assistant and then as an assistant director. In 1975 he debuted as a documentary filmmaker, also making numerous editions of the Latin American ICAIC News. He began his career as a feature film director in 1987 with Clandestinos, a film that would earn him great recognition from national and international critics. Throughout his career he has…
Known for
6.6Dawn breaks in La Habana, and as the day advances we follow the simple lives of ten ordinary Cubans, with only sounds and images accompanied by music.
Suite Habana
2003
5.7The story of a friendship in a city on the verge of substantial change. Miguel dreams of settling in New York while he waits for a visa that never seems to arrive, and Diego, a HIV-positive homosexual man, puts his dreams and cheerfulness to good use in his struggle to carry on enjoying every single day of his life from a rickety old bed in his small bedroom.
Last Days in Havana
2016
5.8This historical drama, depicting different phases in the late childhood and youth of the so-called "Apostle of Cuba" José Martí, is most of the time a biopic full of commonplaces often found in this genre, directed by Fernando Pérez, one of the most respected names in Cuban cinema.
José Martí, the Eye of the Canary
2010
7.8A car accident. The victim is Nelsito, a 16-year-old autistic teenager, who has runaway from home. From his stretchter and through his imaginary pen, Nelsito reveals the dark and hidden side of all those around him: perverse children, murderous women, adorable swindling girls... Until he recovers...
Nelsito's World
2023
5.2Javier is an actor with an affinity for writing. When he begins his love story with Luisita, he does not know where the truth begins and ends. Fifteen years later he has converted his story into literature that relates his tragic love story in a creative way.
Madrigal
2007
2.0A mother struggles to hold her family together after her son succumbs to a disease that leaves him disabled.
The Wall of Words
2014
Film credits
2000s · 2 titles
Behind the camera
6.6Dawn breaks in La Habana, and as the day advances we follow the simple lives of ten ordinary Cubans, with only sounds and images accompanied by music.
Suite Habana
2003
6.6Dawn breaks in La Habana, and as the day advances we follow the simple lives of ten ordinary Cubans, with only sounds and images accompanied by music.
Suite Habana
2003
5.7The story of a friendship in a city on the verge of substantial change. Miguel dreams of settling in New York while he waits for a visa that never seems to arrive, and Diego, a HIV-positive homosexual man, puts his dreams and cheerfulness to good use in his struggle to carry on enjoying every single day of his life from a rickety old bed in his small bedroom.
Last Days in Havana
2016
5.7The story of a friendship in a city on the verge of substantial change. Miguel dreams of settling in New York while he waits for a visa that never seems to arrive, and Diego, a HIV-positive homosexual man, puts his dreams and cheerfulness to good use in his struggle to carry on enjoying every single day of his life from a rickety old bed in his small bedroom.
Last Days in Havana
2016
5.8This historical drama, depicting different phases in the late childhood and youth of the so-called "Apostle of Cuba" José Martí, is most of the time a biopic full of commonplaces often found in this genre, directed by Fernando Pérez, one of the most respected names in Cuban cinema.
José Martí, the Eye of the Canary
2010
7.8A car accident. The victim is Nelsito, a 16-year-old autistic teenager, who has runaway from home. From his stretchter and through his imaginary pen, Nelsito reveals the dark and hidden side of all those around him: perverse children, murderous women, adorable swindling girls... Until he recovers...
Nelsito's World
2023
7.8A car accident. The victim is Nelsito, a 16-year-old autistic teenager, who has runaway from home. From his stretchter and through his imaginary pen, Nelsito reveals the dark and hidden side of all those around him: perverse children, murderous women, adorable swindling girls... Until he recovers...
Nelsito's World
2023
5.2Javier is an actor with an affinity for writing. When he begins his love story with Luisita, he does not know where the truth begins and ends. Fifteen years later he has converted his story into literature that relates his tragic love story in a creative way.
Madrigal
2007
5.2Javier is an actor with an affinity for writing. When he begins his love story with Luisita, he does not know where the truth begins and ends. Fifteen years later he has converted his story into literature that relates his tragic love story in a creative way.
Madrigal
2007
2.0A mother struggles to hold her family together after her son succumbs to a disease that leaves him disabled.
The Wall of Words
2014
2.0A mother struggles to hold her family together after her son succumbs to a disease that leaves him disabled.
The Wall of Words
2014
5.6The plot, set in Havana in the last period of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship, follows a young girl whose aspirations to obtain a scholarship in America, against the odds, are paralleled with her reading of Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea".
Hello Hemingway
1990
5.8Three characters in present-day Havana must choose between clinging to their self-restricting beliefs, or getting rid of them to live more freely. Ballerina Mariana has promised God celibacy if she gets the role of "Giselle"; Social-worker Julia always faints after hearing a certain word; and pot-smoking percussionist Elpidio was abandoned by his mother, coincidentally named Cuba, some time ago and has not yet gotten over the loss.
Life Is to Whistle
1998
5.8Three characters in present-day Havana must choose between clinging to their self-restricting beliefs, or getting rid of them to live more freely. Ballerina Mariana has promised God celibacy if she gets the role of "Giselle"; Social-worker Julia always faints after hearing a certain word; and pot-smoking percussionist Elpidio was abandoned by his mother, coincidentally named Cuba, some time ago and has not yet gotten over the loss.
Life Is to Whistle
1998
7.0In 1950s Havana, a romance blooms between two young revolutionaries whose clandestine printing press publishes pamphlets meant to stir up rebellion against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As their popularity grows, so, too, does their revolutionary zeal and their desire to mobilize other urban guerilla units.
Living Dangerously
1987
6.1Santiago de Cuba, January 19th, 1819. Coming from Lausanne, Enrique Faber, a Swiss doctor and surgeon, arrives on the island, a Spanish province, hoping to find his son, who has been kidnapped…
Defiant Souls
2019
6.1Santiago de Cuba, January 19th, 1819. Coming from Lausanne, Enrique Faber, a Swiss doctor and surgeon, arrives on the island, a Spanish province, hoping to find his son, who has been kidnapped…
Defiant Souls
2019
NRPresents a socio-economic analysis of present day Puerto Rico. Uses archival footage, re-enactments of historic events, and interviews with participants to recount the long history of U.S. involvement in Puerto Rico and the anti-colonial struggle.
Puerto Rico
1975
6.5The 50-minute "Madagascar" has the resonance and eloquence of the best poetry, as it deftly turns an adolescent's search for identity into a metaphor for socialist Cuba. Laura is a professor at a shabby, stultifying college. Her daughter, Laurita, stops going to school, wishes to move to Madagascar and quickly races through several phases. One day, she looks like a heavy-metal fan, another like a bohemian who weeps at poetry and art. Slowly, she crosses the line from ordinary adolescent confusion to intense neurosis and beyond, finally becoming so obsessed with religion and good works that she brings 10 homeless children into the cramped house she shares with her mother and grandmother.
Madagascar
1995
6.5The 50-minute "Madagascar" has the resonance and eloquence of the best poetry, as it deftly turns an adolescent's search for identity into a metaphor for socialist Cuba. Laura is a professor at a shabby, stultifying college. Her daughter, Laurita, stops going to school, wishes to move to Madagascar and quickly races through several phases. One day, she looks like a heavy-metal fan, another like a bohemian who weeps at poetry and art. Slowly, she crosses the line from ordinary adolescent confusion to intense neurosis and beyond, finally becoming so obsessed with religion and good works that she brings 10 homeless children into the cramped house she shares with her mother and grandmother.
Madagascar
1995



