Best Cuban movies

Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.

Meet Chala, an eleven year-old boy with a hard life and strong respect for Carmela, his sixth grade teacher. The pair develops a solid bond, but after Carmela suffers an accident, things get complicated…

In 1996, Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, British producer Nick Gold, and American guitarist Ry Cooder convened in Havana to produce a Cuban-Malian collaboration. When the Malians couldn’t get visas, the team turned their attention to reviving a forgotten generation of legendary son cubano musicians and formed an on-the-fly ensemble: the Buena Vista Social Club. Two decades since that fateful first session, we catch up to these master musicians, as they reflect on the magical unfolding of their lives—from humble origins to the evolution and surprising revival of their careers, all against the backdrop of Cuba’s dramatic history. Brimming with unseen concert, rehearsal, and archival footage, this film is an emotional, shimmering celebration of music’s power to transcend age, ideologies, and class, and to connect us to each other through our souls.

A young man attempts to fight the system in an entertaining account of bureaucracy amok and the tyranny of red tape. Restored by the Academy Film Archive and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos in 2019.

Alicia, a circus clown, dreams of being an actress. When the circus arrives in a remote village she meets Abelito, a boy with a skin disorder that prevents him from going out in the sun. As Abelito looks forward to the circus, Alicia anxiously awaits news from Havana about a casting.

Using morgue photos, newsreel footage, and a recording by Lena Horne, Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez fired off 'Now!', one of the most powerful bursts of propaganda rendered in the 1960s.

Traces episodes in the lives of three Cuban women, each named Lucía, from three different historical periods: the 1890s, the 1930s, and the 1960s.

Alfa, a famous porn actor, must deal with his fears, insecurities and memories when he begins work on a new film without Yerry, his former partner in life and porn. On his first day of shooting without him, Alfa tries to act as in the past but can things be like before? Javier Ferreiro's short film reflects on the difficult decision of letting someone go to move forward. ALFA is framed in the context of gay porn cinema in Cuba where pornography is banned but, little by little, it's growing up an underground industry impulsed by foreign tourism.

In 1991, the USSR is falling apart and Cuba enters its hardest economic crisis. Sergio, a professor of Marxism who can't provide for his family, and Sergei, a Soviet cosmonaut stranded in the Mir space station, share a common passion: amateur radio. Through this hobby, both men will be able to help each other in facing the dramatic changes of their countries.

Damaris and Alberto live in an isolated village in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Cuba. Four months ago, their 12 year old son committed suicide.

While a mother only just finds out that her daughter's dating a Cuban, she realises her daughter will get married on Cuba too. To hinder the failure-designated marriage, she immediately gets on a flight to Cuba.

Poor farmer's son Tom Little may be small, but what he lacks in brawn, he more than makes up for in brains and bravery. When a magic mirror shows him that the love of his life is no less than the beautiful princess, he's determined to win her heart. Meanwhile, a revengeful witch has conjured up a giant tree that covers the royal palace and destroys the court's fountain. Having heard that the King is offering his daughter's hand and half the kingdom to whoever manages to free the palace from this spell, Tom tries his luck against all odds.

In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.

A pious plantation owner attempts to teach Christianity to 12 of his slaves by inviting them to participate in a reenactment of the Last Supper.

A young couple in Havana struggles desperately to find a place in the crowded city where they can be alone and unseen. Combining video essay, fiction, and documentary footage of Cuban streets, What’s Mine is Yours is a darkly humorous, frenetic look at the way dense urban life confuses our desire for intimacy.

A mother struggles to hold her family together after her son succumbs to a disease that leaves him disabled.

Directed mainly for kids, the film speaks of a Havana that reveals two distinct faces, from the everyday life of a couple of kids.

The story of a friendship in a city on the verge of substantial change. Miguel dreams of settling in New York while he waits for a visa that never seems to arrive, and Diego, a HIV-positive homosexual man, puts his dreams and cheerfulness to good use in his struggle to carry on enjoying every single day of his life from a rickety old bed in his small bedroom.

In the dense night, when the moon lifts the tide, beings trapped in the daily life of water scarcity, they are hypnotized by the powers of Yemaya, the goddess of the sea.

In 1923 the scientist Von Dracula invented Vampisol, a drink that allowed vampires to live in the sun. La Capa Nostra and the European Vampire Group confront each other in Havana to control the Vampisol, but Pepe, Von Dracula's nephew, sang the Vampisol formula for free on Radio Vampiro Internacional. Now Pepe must face the Nazi vampires, who use the most powerful Vampisol: El Vampiyaba.

Josefa and Abelardo is an old couple wracked by monotony. She is quite authoritarian, and he is always trying to please her, only achieving herirritation. Sexual appetites have been decaying over the years, mostly in Josefa; whose only pleasure is the soap operas she follows with great attention. One night, with the arrival of Rebecca, Abelardo's young and desirable niece, the routine of the marriage changes drastically.

In the outskirts of Havana, Hugo dreams of baseball.

This black-and-white film is a loving portrait of Santiago de Cuba and its people. It provides a view of Cuba as a picturesque country, the product of an earthy mix of black and criollo cultures. The film uses historical images which portray the end of the eighteenth century when Haitian slave owners fled with their slaves to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution.

Fedele and Vittorio are two brothers who married the daughters of a rich entrepreneur, Siniscalco. But while Fedele is an irreproachable husband, Vittorio cheats on his wife and accumulates gambling debts, until one day his car is found at the bottom of a lake and he is left for dead. Six years later, however, the extraordinary news arrives: Vittorio is alive and is in Cuba, where he lives by scamming tourists. Fedele then leaves with the intention of bringing him back to his family.

Cuba's enforced isolation has resulted in the unlikeliest of marine reserves: a huge, rambling archipelago known as Jardines de la Reina, or "Gardens of the Queen." Stretching around 140 miles along the southern coast of Cuba, it's one of the longest barrier reef systems in the world. Get an up-close look at Fidel Castro's diving playground, a forgotten ocean paradise unseen for half a century, and witness exotic species rarely seen elsewhere in the region. It's the lost jewel of the Caribbean, but how long can this pristine wilderness survive?

Javier is an actor with an affinity for writing. When he begins his love story with Luisita, he does not know where the truth begins and ends. Fifteen years later he has converted his story into literature that relates his tragic love story in a creative way.

Dawn breaks in La Habana, and as the day advances we follow the simple lives of ten ordinary Cubans, with only sounds and images accompanied by music.

At a rundown bus station in rural Cuba, the line of passengers waiting just keeps getting longer. The problem is that every bus that passes by is already full. Their only hope is to wait for the station's bus to be fixed. As the disparate group settles in, relationships start forming between the passengers: Emilio, a young engineer, becomes smitten with a beautiful young woman who is en route to meet her Spanish fiancé, a blind man gets support from the others to go to the head of the line. Frustration and disorder reign when the one bus brakes down and no one can leave. Resigned to working together, the group magically transforms the station into a beautiful place where no one wants to leave.

Ana is a telenovela actress but because of financial troubles resorts to producing a prostitution documentary under false pretences.

Playing Lecuona is a musical journey through the works and living spaces of Ernesto Lecuona, the internationally acclaimed Cuban pianist and piano composer. Serving as guides through Lecuona’s music are three of the most gifted Latin jazz pianists in the world: Chucho Valdés, Michel Camilo, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Valdés fuses Latin jazz together with Afro-Cuban rhythms in Lecuona’s native Havana; Camilo recreates elegant aural soundscapes in New York and the Canary Islands; and Rubalcaba fuses jazz and flamenco in Seville, the heart of Andalusian Spain. Together, these three musicians provide a rich portrait of Lecuona’s music and its lasting influence.

In a boarding school, Raidel is witness to the abuse suffered by his schoolmate Randy.

A masterclass in mood, the film plunges us into the darkness of the blackouts that ripple across Cuba. In the murk of shadow, the flickering of fire beckons stories from realms beyond the reach of light. Electricity cuts have revived a protest movement dormant since the revolution, one demanding that power be restored.

Based on the life of Benny Moré, the film concentrates on a period in the early 1950s when Moré leaves the orchestra of Duany and starts his own 'Banda Gigante'. In flashback we learn of his success in Mexico. Moré is caught in the events connected to Batista's coup in Cuba. Also, he tours Venezuela, where he suffers the machinations of a vengeful businessman. After collapsing and being hospitalised, Moré swears off alcohol. Some years later, he encounters his old band-mate Monchy, fallen on hard times.

The Castro revolution was just consolidating its power when, in 1961, over 100,000 students were sent from their schools into the countryside to teach the peasants there how to read. Coinciding with the Bay of Pigs invasion, in this docudrama, 15-year-old Mario (Salvador Wood) has come to a tiny village in the Zapata swamps and gradually wins the villagers over to his task. At the same time, he receives an education in the realities of rural life from the hard-working peasants.

One night a woman dreams that she is transformed into an animal. In a nightmare, the machinery comes to life in the form of a creature. Between sleep and wakefulness she remembers the abortion she experienced and the ghosts that accompany her. The women of the island reveal the mysteries that help her heal wounds caused by the violence that condemns women in her country.

The "edad de la peseta" or silly age is the term used in Cuba for the pre-adolescent period from the age of seven to the age of eleven. Set in 1958 in Havana, the year that culminates the Revolution, ten-year-old Samuel has just arrived in town with his recently divorced mother. They take up residence in the house of his eccentric grandmother Violeta, and Samuel is introduced to a new, mysterious world where Samuel finds himself an adult in comparison to his child-like mother.

Documentary film on the end of the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon and the departure of American troops, as well as a tracing of 4000 years of Vietnamese culture.

Nicholas Quevedo, a Cuban-American rumba singer moves from Havana to New York with nothing else but his love for rumba and his unbreakable dream to make it in the Big Apple, but his journey would be confronted by unimaginable challenges.

Three characters in present-day Havana must choose between clinging to their self-restricting beliefs, or getting rid of them to live more freely. Ballerina Mariana has promised God celibacy if she gets the role of "Giselle"; Social-worker Julia always faints after hearing a certain word; and pot-smoking percussionist Elpidio was abandoned by his mother, coincidentally named Cuba, some time ago and has not yet gotten over the loss.

An intimate and revealing autoethnographic documentary about uprootedness, motherhood, love of film, friendship and freedom. Two filmmakers who have been best friends since childhood, both part of the Cuban diaspora, share their intimate and emotional journey while they try to find themselves and each other in a foreign land.

This historical drama, depicting different phases in the late childhood and youth of the so-called "Apostle of Cuba" José Martí, is most of the time a biopic full of commonplaces often found in this genre, directed by Fernando Pérez, one of the most respected names in Cuban cinema.

Yoli always lived with her mother in a humble neighborhood in Havana. Until one day, a boy invites him to leave and Yoli decides to wait for him, trying to change his routine, even if it is for a day.

An unclaimed fortune, grown for centuries in a British bank account, becomes a potential windfall for Bernadito Castiñeiras and the residents of the tiny village of Yaragüey, Cuba. To receive his massive inheritance check, Bernadito must prove his lineage to the Castiñeiras nuns who first populated the region. In an isolated and impoverished town where many residents share the same surname, a feud breaks out between the "Castiñeiras" and "Castiñeyras" families.

In 1950s Havana, a romance blooms between two young revolutionaries whose clandestine printing press publishes pamphlets meant to stir up rebellion against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. As their popularity grows, so, too, does their revolutionary zeal and their desire to mobilize other urban guerilla units.

Teresa is overwhelmed: with a husband, three young sons, a job as a crew leader in a textile factory, and volunteer commitments as cultural leader of her union. Her husband, Ramón, wants more of her attention; her feelings are mixed, wanting domestic peace, feeling responsibilities to the revolution, and wanting to control her own life beyond doing dirty dishes. They separate; he begins an affair. When he wants a reconciliation, she asks what his response would be if she'd had an affair too. "But men are different," is his reply. He's failed her test, and to hold on to independence and self-respect, she remains uncompromising and hard-edged.

Maya looks at the relationship between a fighting dog and her owner and trainer. At close quarters, we observe the three days leading up to a fight to the death.

A story of survival and triumph of the human spirit.

Against the fascinating backdrop of an ever marvellous Havana, Vittorio Arditi De Bellis, an aging Italian orchestra conductor once celebrated for specialising in Rossini's compositions, has fallen on hard times. However, some remember he delivered some of the best renditions of the Rossini-Kyrie, and he soon finds himself reluctantly on the way to Havana, Cuba, to conduct the Children's Cuban National Choir. Starting on the wrong foot he quickly finds himself on the verge of losing everything. Rossini's Cuban style and the choir's children are also protagonists in this heart-warming and nostalgic tale of living, loving, growing old and being unexpectedly surprised when he meets the Son he never knew he fathered years ago - Vittorio's past adds new purpose to his present, allowing an otherwise quirky old man to feel his passion and taste the 'spice of life' once again.

Landi and Mercedes live in Cuba’s Zapata swamp, a biosphere reserve. To feed their sick child, Landi must secretly hunt crocodiles, leaving his wife and son behind for days on end.

In the Cuba of these times, where everyone sells something, the young Nácar wants to sell her only property, the family vault.

After languishing in a Barcelona prison for nearly a decade, a busted bank robber attempts to find the girl who made off with the cash in this suspenseful tale of revenge and betrayal starring Adriana Gil and Eduard Fernández. Ex-con Martin Losada is out of prison and on the hunt. When he and his band of anti-Franco bank robbers were busted after a botched heist ten years ago, the only member of their team never caught by police was his long-gone ex-girlfriend Julia. Now, on the eve of the 1958 revolution, the recently released ex-con sets his sights on Havana in a determined bid to find Julia, and stake his claim on his rightful share of the take.

Javi shows up for the last time at a queer club where he works as a dancer, but he must deal with Castillo, a regular customer who resists the fact that he will never see him again.

Iluminada lives a poor life but her luck turns around when she wins a prize from a Rina brand soap.

A young, attractive widow is protected from her vicious mother-in-law, by a male relative who practices Satanism, and lusts after the old woman's sexy adolescent granddaughter.

'Coffea arábiga' was sponsored as a propaganda documentary to show how to sow coffee around Havana. In fact, Guillén Landrián made a film critical of Castro, exhibited but banned as soon as the coffee plan collapsed.

In a famous Havana cigar factory, Gricel La Lectora makes her way to her rostrum and microphone, where she regales the workers with a specially curated mix of interesting articles, novels, poetry and diversions. Gricel is one of the last people to hold this storied position.

In 1967, Cuban documentary filmmaker Octavio Cortazar followed a projectionist whose mission was to show moving pictures to rural communities for the first time. Cortazar’s short film documents one audience’s response to its first film: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

On november 27th, 1871 one of the most atrocious events happened in the Cuban territory, the regiment of voluntarys of the spanish army along with the Spaniard corrupt government that ruled the island, conspired to destroy the lives of 8 students of medicine. The resolution of the young students in maintaining their dignity over the injustice in which they were involved; the reaction of few fair spanish men to the inexplicable situation in which the events was developed and the never told roll of Fermín Valdés in the discovery of the truth will change the insight of this story. Based on true events, this film was a debt to the Cuban history that was settled.

It's the late 1980s in Cuba, and in an isolated ranch in a small town near Santa Clara, lives Vilma, a young nurse who dreams of a better place to raise her upcoming baby, along with her disabled husband Ivan. However, neither her skills as a nurse nor as a shooter will free Vilma from her harsh reality until a natural phenomena sweeps her away and Vilma wakes up in a place where it seems her dream will come true.

Alex and Edith, a young couple in their 30s, live their relationship made up of small gestures and everyday life among the ruins of Cuban buildings. Milagros, an elderly woman now retired, tries to survive by selling peanuts and spends her days listening to the radio and reading old letters. Frank and Alain, two nine-year-old friends, go to school and dream of emigrating together to the United States to become Major League Baseball players. Against the backdrop of San Antonio De Los Baños, a town in inland Cuba where time seems to stand still, these three narratives and their respective worlds unfold. Over this mosaic of contemporaneity, however, brought to life through the characters' memories, hovers the specter of separation, the true great scourge of Cuban society.

A painful true story of a revolutionary Andian warrior whose strength and devotion to his people influenced many in Latin America, Africa and the West.