Legenda / Legend

Film about Cuban revolution hero, Jorge Jorge, whose colorful and fabulous life story reflects the whole legend of Cuba, colored with fact and fiction.

Jorge Jorge, 85, worked in 1940-1950s as a waiter in the National Hotel. He was an assistant for the famous mobster Meyer Lansky. On the other hand he also served the revolution and was a close to Fidel Castro. Finally he became the first manager of the National Hotel after the revolution. Jorge Jorge is a man full of incomprehensible stories. Some of them may be true, some exaggerated or some as honest as they are extraordinary.

In Jorge's stories there are a presence of Mafia and Fidel Castro but also Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, Johnny Weismüller and Winston Churchill.

The film reflects though one man the whole identity of Cuba and the fabulous legend of the nation that was born with the revolution. Jorge is everything the Cuban imagination can develop and also part of a complicated history.

World premiere

Arto Halonen

Arto Halonen (born 11.01.1964) has directed produced and written films since 1983. In his career as a director, Halonen has mainly concentrated on documentary film production, but he has also written and directed fiction and animated films.

His breakthrough was the fictionalised documentary "Ringside" (1992) which won the main prize at the Slovenian International Golden Shot and the Finnish state's Quality Production Award 1993.

"The Happy Wedding Day" (90 min), a TV Feature Comedy was the third most watched film on YLE The Finnish Broadcasting Company in 1993. "The Stars' Caravan" (2000), shot in Kyrgyzstan, ends the award winning series of Halonen´s Asia documentaries. Earlier in the series, "The Karmapa - Two Ways of Divinity", was set in Tibet, India and China and "A Dreamer and the Dreamtribe" in the Malaysian rain forest. His latest fiction film is the critically acclaimed "Home"(1995). Halonen's film, "The Tank Man" (2004) was rewarded as a best documentary film in Magma Short Cinema´s Exhibition in Italy and with a diploma of honour of Jury in Cracow Film Festival. Currently, he is working as a producer in "Kiteen kirkas". Documentary film "Conquistadors of Cuba", produced and directed by Halonen had its premier in Finland in January 2005. He is also the founder of DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival. In addition to DocPoint, Halonen has also worked as a chairman and member of the board in Finnish Documentary Guild between 2000 and 2003. He produces films through his company Art films production AFP Ltd.