LA HABANERA
O.V. in German subtitled in Spanish and English
Before becoming Douglas Sirk, the master of melodrama, Detlef Sierck directed films in the Nazi Germany, already showing his distinctive style and characters. La Habanera (today in a brand new copy restored by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung) takes us to the exotic lands of Puerto Rico (a hodgepodge of clichés filmed in the Canary Islands) by the hand of two Swedes: the impulsive Astrée and her aunt Ana. Astrée falls in love with the rich and seductive Don Pedro de Avila, leaving her aunt on the return ship. Ten years later, with a son and fed up with Don Pedro and the Caribbean, she is offered a chance to go back by two doctor friends sent by her aunt (one of them a former lover), sent to investigate and cure the mysterious Puerto Rican fever.
