“Insumisa”, the new cinematographic proposal of Fernando Pérez, in collaboration with the Swiss filmmaker Laura Hunter is based on real events, tells the story of Enriqueta Faber, a Swiss woman who arrived in Baracoa and became the first to practice medicine in Cuba dressed as a man. This career was forbidden for women at that time and Enriqueta adopted a male identity to study and exercise it, and even got married to the young Cuban peasant Juana de León, which led to a scandalous trial three years later, when she was discovered.
The National Film Prize was captivated by the story of Enriqueta, for being a woman ahead of her time and who was a pioneer in defending the position of women and their rights in the nineteenth century. In addition, he considers that the film portrays the “right to individual freedom over norms and legal and social obligations”
Minnesota Cuba Committee - www.minnesotacubacommitee.org