Defiant Souls

Name: Insumisa
Genre: Drama
Released: 2019-03-07
Duration: 1 h 34 min
Rating: 6.6
Cast: Sylvie Testud, Betiza Bismark Calderón, Antonio Buíl

Original title: Insumisa

2019
1h 34m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

114

YOUR RATING

Drama

1810. Enrique Faber, a Swiss surgeon, lands in Cuba in search for his son. After a few weeks of investigation, he is told that his son was burnt alive in the attack on a plantation led by a ... Read all1810. Enrique Faber, a Swiss surgeon, lands in Cuba in search for his son. After a few weeks of investigation, he is told that his son was burnt alive in the attack on a plantation led by a slave revolt. Enrique Faber does not believe this. He settles in Baracoa and carries on wi... Read all1810. Enrique Faber, a Swiss surgeon, lands in Cuba in search for his son. After a few weeks of investigation, he is told that his son was burnt alive in the attack on a plantation led by a slave revolt. Enrique Faber does not believe this. He settles in Baracoa and carries on with his research. His success as a doctor and his marriage to Juana, a young strange and at... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

114

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 nominations

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Review

Featured review

10/10

The best film we saw at the ImageOut Festival

The Cuban-French film Insumisa (2019) was co-written and co-directed by directed by Laura Cazador and Fernando Pérez. The literal translation of Insumisa is unsubmissive. The movie was shown in the U.S. with the title Defiant Souls.

Sylvie Testud stars as Enriqueta Faber. (Faber's life is fairly well documented, so the movie is, indeed, based on fact.) Faber portrays herself as a man, which she had to do in order to attend medical school in France. When she arrives in Cuba, she is on a search for her son. She can't find him, but she stays on as a skilled physician.

The plot continues from there, and is horrified by the horrible institution of slavery, which was legal then in Cuba. (Slavery continued to be legal there until 1886.)

The story is not a happy one, but the movie itself is fascinating. Sylvie Testud is a popular French actor, but I had not seen her work before. She is outstanding in this role.

This film was presented by ImageOut, Rochester's great LGBTQ Film Festival. (Virtual this year.) I can't believe that this movie has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.5. I rated it 10. It's one of those cases where I say, "Did other people see the same film that I saw?"