Tamango1958

John Berry was a member of the Mercury Theatre company in the 1940s before following Orson Welles to Hollywood. After running afoul of the blacklist, Berry relocated to France where he made this historical potboiler. Controversial for its bold depictions of revolt and interracial romance, TAMANGO was nearly impossible to see for decades. Charismatic Reinker captains the Esperanza from Guinea to Cuba with an illegal shipment of slaves. Onboard, the titular slave seethes with revolutionary energy; the captain's mistress, herself a slave, is torn by shifting allegiances; and even the white crew murmurs mutiny. The drifting boat becomes a figure of the irresolvable tragedies of history as a tense standoff between the crew and its cargo barrels towards a harrowing conclusion which admits no victors.