Cuban film critic Castillo receives National Film Award after lifelong dedication

Luciano Castillo's life has been inextricably linked to cinema, a passion ignited at age eight by a German film in his native Camagüey. This early fascination evolved into a lifelong dedication, culminating in his recent receipt of Cuba's National Film Award.

Castillo recounted how his childhood visits to the cinema, starting with "The Sleeping Beauty" from East Germany, quickly became a ritual. He progressed from children's matinees to adult screenings, a habit that solidified his deep love for film. "Cinema has always been in my life, and I cannot conceive of it without it. It is living for and by cinema," he stated.

Although economic hardships prevented him from pursuing a formal arts education, leading him to study and graduate in Accounting and Costs, his heart remained with film. He worked as an accountant but continued to nurture his cinephilia. In Camagüey, where formal cineclubs were scarce, he discovered a collection of 16mm films and established the Glauber Rocha cineclub at the provincial library.

His dedication extended to collaborating with provincial film centers and the Cinemateca de Cuba. He developed a close relationship with Héctor García Mesa, the Cinemateca's founder, assisting with programming and learning the importance of film preservation. Castillo firmly believed in seeing as much cinema as possible, even traveling to Havana to watch and meticulously copy dialogues from films like Andrei Konchalovsky's "Romance of the Lovers," which he saw 13 times.