Juan Of The Dead

The zombies have reached Cuba.

Not real zombies of course, no Cuba is jumping on the horror movie bandwagon as the island nation shoots its first zombie film, “Juan of the Dead”. Of course being Cuba, even a schlock horror movie has some political overtones. According to the BBC, the Cuban leaders in the movie dither as a zombie plague grips the island, blaming the outbreak on the America government and Cuban exiles as part of a sinister plan to undermine the Communist government. It falls then to the title hero Juan to try to rid his homeland of the zombie plague.

Director Alejandro Brugues said that the zombie outbreak is both a metaphor and a way to explore how Cuban react to disasters, even ridiculous movie-made ones. “It's a zombie film but it's about Cubans and how we react in the face of a crisis because we've had a lot of them here over the last 50 years,” Brugues explained to the BBC.

Cuba has a rich cinematic history, but since the fall of their primary patron, the Soviet Union, in 1991, the Cuban film industry has struggled to fund new productions. “Juan of the Dead” is a joint project between Cuban and Spanish studios, production on the film should wrap later this year.