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It’s been almost 50 years now that Fidel Castro has held Cuba in his grip. Apart from his legend as the great liberator of Third World peoples and more recently his “last of the Mohicans” image of a dying communist system, what do we really know about him? We know all the ready-made answers: Cuba, colonial enclave plundered by Batista, a corrupt pro-American dictator. His way was laid out: the meeting with the Che, the adulation of the poor, the triumphant entry into Havana and the stirring utopian dream. With the Berlin Wall down and the fog lifted, what we see now is a country destroyed by the arbitrary reign of a “lider maximo” over a anemic nation. And what if this Castro of legend was false? His story began in southern Cuba in 1926, when Fidel was born, an illegitimate child. Castro’s childhood is not well known, often veiled, if not travestied. And yet, it sheds a light on the Cuban dictator’s itinerary, his ideological and political course. Jesuit schooling, law studies at Havana University, student activism, meeting with the Che. Thus, contrary to what he has declared, politics and the downside of politics held no mystery for him, and this from a very early age. Drawing on rare archives and excusive interviews with those close to Fidel, this film reexamines his life.

France - 2004 - 55 mn - DV Cam - Colour

Director Daniel Leconte Script Daniel Leconte Research Ibar Aibar, Sophie Lepault Camera Ibar Aibar, Peter Bolton Editing Laurent Abellard Narrator Pierre-Marie Bernoux, Gérard Dessalles, Jean-Pascal Quilichini

Production Doc en Stock, 79, rue du Temple, 75003 Paris, France Tél : +33 (0)1 4454 2587 Fax : +33 (0)1 4274 1821 E-mail : cblondel@docenstock.com Co-Production ARTE France with the participation of Radiotélévision belge de la communauté française, Télévision Suisse Romande / Radio Télévision Suisse

Sales Doc en Stock, 79, rue du Temple, 75003 Paris, France Tél : +33 (0)1 4454 2589 Fax : +33 (0)1 4274 1821 E-mail : bnocella@docenstock.com