EL JUEGO DE CUBA

Manuel was born in Almería in 1964. He has a degree in Spanish Philology and Sciences of Information. He began working in cinema as casting director and assistant director in the film 'El mejor de los tiempos' by Filipe Vega (1989). His first work was the short film 'El día blanco' (1990). Later he worked on other fifteen feature films with directors such as José Luis Borau, Icíar Bollaín, Ernesto Tellería, Alain Tanner, Mariano Barroso or José Luis Cuerda. He's been teacher in the School of Cinema and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba) and also taught in the Union de Actores de Madrid and in the Carlos III University. Having written and directed in 2001 the full-length documentary 'El juego de Cuba', he participated in 2003 in San Sebastian Festival with his first film as a director and co-screenwriter, 'La flaqueza del bolchevique', with which María Valverde won the Goya for Best New Actress. In 2005 he competed in the Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival with 'Malas temporadas'. He returned to documentaries with 'Últimos testigos: Carrillo comunista' (2009) and again to fiction with 'La mitad de Óscar' (2010).