Film about Cuban Dancer Acclaimed in San Sebastian Festival

The recent feature film by Spanish director, Iciar Bollain, inspired by the life of Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, has been praised by specialists after its premiere at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

In the film, entitled Yuli, Acosta narrates and dances, in first person, his own life, Luis Martinez, journalist of El Mundo newspaper, wrote.

For Martinez, the film is like a mirror and the artist came to it in order to tell his story.

The film competes for the Golden Shell award and its first screening was described by the specialized press as 'luminous', 'emotive' and 'dazzling'.

Journalist Carlos Pumares, of La Razon newspaper, says that, of the films seen so far in the Festival, Bollain's movie is 'the best, without any doubt.'

In his opinion, the director intersperses Acosta's childhood and stardom, going back and forth in the history with enormous simplicity.

According to critic Carlos Loureda, of Fotogramas magazine, Yuli has the necessary ingredients to succeed at the box office: the social side of Paul Laverty's writing, mixture of emotion and some laughter, and dances inserted in the narrative.

The 66th edition of the San Sebastian contest takes place in that Spanish city until September 29.

The film's cast involves Acosta himself, along with Santiago Alfonso, Laura De la Uz, Yerlin Perez, Kevin Martinez and Edilson Manuel Olbera, among other actors.