The Last Rumba of Papa Montero + Tango Ya Ba Wendo

La Ultima Rumba de Papa Montero (The Last Rumba of Papa Montero)

D: Octavio Cortázar

Docu-Fiction, Cuba/Martinique 1992, 52 min, English subtitles

The funeral mourners dance the Rumba and the pallbearers tap the beat on the coffin – this film within a film tells the story of Cuba’s greatest "Rumbero", Papa Montero, in the 1930s and his death in a menage-à-trois. A film team traced his footsteps – and time and again Afro-Cuban mythology finds its way into the film: the way singers and dancers turn the streets and squares of Havanna into musical backdrops puts the opening scenes of "Westside Story" in the shade.

Tango Ya Ba Wendo

D: Kwami Mambu Zinga, Mirko Popovitch

Documentary, Congo 1993, 52 min, English subtitles

"Tango Ya Ba Wendo" is how the Wendo era is described in Lingala: an established term in Kinshasa for the 1940s, when Antoine Kolosoyi aka Wendo celebrated his brand of Congolese Rumba. Here, the almost 70-year-old musician tells of his mother, who sang traditional songs, of his time as a boxer and mechanic, of his early days as a singer when Congo was a Belgian colony and the independence movement was in full swing. A wonderful musical portrait of the late Papa Wendo, who died in 2008.

Traffic restrictions From 23 July, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee is closed to motorized traffic between Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Spreeweg. The Haus is still accessible to drivers coming from the direction of the Reichstag but parking is severely restricted. The 100 Bus route will be diverted to Straße des 17. Juni and there is a provisional bus stop “Haus der Kulturen der Welt”. More...