CAMAGÜEY.- For the first time, the sociocultural project MangaQ'ba held a poster competition during the Hanami 2025 Japanese Culture Day. The theme was the film Rashomon, by director Akira Kurosawa, to commemorate its 75th anniversary.

Nearly 40 works from various regions of the country competed for the prize of 20,000 pesos. The ten finalists were exhibited at the Mira gallery, part of the provincial branch of the Hermanos Saíz Association.

"We are very proud of our participation, and in the exhibition we have works from Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Camagüey, and Guantánamo. We are dedicating this event to Japanese cinema and are presenting the illustration project V by Vendutta, so with the contest we seek to integrate both artistic expressions," Carlos Oliva Rodríguez, president of MangaQ'ba, explained to Adelante Digital.

The visual proposals reinterpret, from each designer's unique perspective, the complexity of a narrative that challenges absolute truth.

"Rashomon taught us that reality is a fragmented mirror, where each witness constructs their own version of events. The posters we are presenting today capture that essence: a multiplicity of styles, techniques, and symbolism that dialogue between ambiguity, memory, and subjectivity," said Ismel Cabrales Bolaños, a designer and member of the jury.

Each piece in competition not only pays homage to the film's enigmatic atmosphere but also reinvents its iconic elements (the forest, the dagger, the rain, the exchanged glances, the temple).

The poster by Serguei Díaz, from Mayabeque, was chosen as the winner for its high level of synthesis and visual impact, its excellent use of color as a communicative and dramatic element (achieved with a single ink, red, ideal for screen printing), and the very successful use of semantics in his poster, with simple visual symbols that convey the dynamism of the film's mise-en-scène and its essence, without being overly descriptive.

Furthermore, it demonstrates a deep analysis of the film, and the illustrative typography used in the title and the one selected for the informative texts make the poster highly appropriate for our times and works well in print and digital media, according to the jury's decision, which also includes graphic designers Roberto Pareta and David González.

As part of Hanami 2025, several Japanese films, including Rashomon, were screened in the Callejón de los Milagros.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez