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Shortly after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro’s government invited the Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (1902–89) to advise on the new national film system in Havana. There, in January 1960, he was interviewed by the young Catalan–Cuban cinematographer Nestor Almendros (1930–92) for the weekly journal Lunes de Revolución. In their conversation, Zavattini recounted his experiences travelling around the island and explained the film projects he was supervising at the newly founded Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos. Through the discussion of the situation of European and world cinemas in 1959–60, this interview also signals some of the tensions that existed between the Italian master, a promoter of neorealism in Latin America, and Almendros, who at the time was advocating for the adoption of new styles – Nouvelle Vague, Cinéma Vérité, etc. – in Cuban cinema.