Another wonderful insight into the Cuban soul        Rating:

First, it must be understood that Humberto Solás does not make films in the style most familiar to North American audiences. His are NOT action films that involve two hours of blowing things up and wildly destructive automobile chases. That fact we must clarify right at the start. His films are somewhat dry and slow moving, but packed with deep insight into the human condition and what makes us tick.

This specific film highlights an aspect of human life all too common in North America today. I refer to the negative impact that living without one or both biological parents can have on children. This is particularly true when, in the aftermath of divorce, the parents differ on how the children should be raised and/or use the children as weapons against each other.

In this case, we have a family split by politics, which adds another layer of interested to this story.

Here we find 32 year old Roberto returning to Cuba for the first time since his father had taken him from the island as a young child. Now a professor in the United States, he has come to find his mother and also to discover his motherland. Neither one is easy for him to find. Reunited with his cousin, Pilar, the two embark on a road trip across the island in search of Carmen, Roberto's biological mother.

Jorge Perugorría has established himself as one of the most talented and capable actors in the world today. Mario Limonta & Isabel Santos give excellent performances. I enjoyed the all too brief appearances of Saturnino Garcia and Paula Alí, who are among my very favorite Cuban actors.

It's a touching film. Very moving. It shows us many sides of Cuba today. And it also shows us many sides of ourselves.

unforced sentimentality        Rating:

I love this movie for what is, a sentimental journey, a coming to terms with one's longing. The movie itself was film sparingly, straight forward no fancy effects. Jorge Perugorria is right on in portraying the 41 yr old, Latin Literature teacher from Maimi in search of the mother who he's always thought abandoned him. When he first finds out that he was literary ripped out of his mother's arms in contrary to what his now deceased father has always told him, that his mother didn't care about going with him to America, he started to loath the lies his dead father has told him. But like everything else, he discovers that everyone has also suffered, that his own suffering equals everyone else's. And this dicovery had brought a certain measure of peace within him. I love looking at the movie physically because you get to see a little bit of Cuba. The old classic buildings are dilapidated but beautiful, the people are colourful and you can see how everyone is trying to get by with so little. I also like Isabel Santos, who plays the tour guide cousin. She's quite intense and reminds one of Ingrid Bergman. I enjoyed this movie a lot and I cried at the end. Life can be so sad sometimes and this movie conveys it well.

Good film despite flair for the melodramatic        Rating:

I enjoyed this film about a son who returns to Cuba in search of his mother, whom he's been separated from for over thirty years. Although the film is at times overly dramatic and plays like a soap opera, you still find yourself absorbed in the search. This is a road film and, as such, takes us on a journey. The shots of the Cuban villages and countryside are reason enough to watch.

The ending is predictable, but that's okay because we like this kind of predictability. My only criticism is that the director could have handled it better. Basically, it was abrupt and lacked the required intimacy. Otherwise, a warm, heart-felt film with an incredible performance by Isabel Santos. Her performance is evocative of Lena Olin's in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

Well done!        Rating:

Being a Cuban American who left Cuba at 15 years of age and having gone back with my husband and children 30+ years later, this was a VERY emotional movie for me! I found the movie to be very realistic in depicting the pain and sorrow which every Cuban-American feels in being away from our homeland, as well as the bitter-sweet experience of going back.
Marina
Pembroke Pines, Florida

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