5/10
Three sisters in Madrid
25 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Nena, Ludmila, and Rosa, three young women arrive in Madrid from Cuba. They have been sponsored by an aunt who had settled in Spain some years ago, and who now, believes she is more Spaniard than Cuban. At the same time, another couple with a young girl are met at the airport by Igor, a Cuban friend who is now living in Madrid.

The three sisters quickly learn that their new home is not exactly what they had in mind when they thought about abandoning their country. They arrive to a society they are not prepared for; they are at a disadvantage because the regime in which they have lived most of their lives hasn't prepared them for anything of practical use in their new country. The aunt proves to be a woman who sees in their nieces a nuisance to her ordered life and she feels they are invading her territory. Maria, the aunt, wanted Nena to take an interest in Javier, a gay Spaniard, who obviously couldn't care less for her, but is willing to enter in an arranged marriage to help him disguise what he really is, sexually.

Igor, on the other hand, is a small con artist. Igor also is a man who could be bisexual, as proved by the fact of his encounter with the man who falsifies documents and is asked to cut his toe nails... The newly arrived Cubans feel they don't want to stay in Spain, since their goal is to settle in Miami. Igor falls for Nena, the prettiest of the sisters. At the same time, he is double timing her with Azucena, Maria's best friend and neighbor. Nena who wants to be an actress gets reunited with a fellow Cuban playwright who is staging a show they had done in Cuba, but now, for the Madrid presentation has been transformed into a work that doesn't reflect the original play.

Manuel Gutierrez Aragon, the Spanish director, co-wrote the film with Senel Paz, a Cuban writer. The film is laden with clichés that renders it completely false. Nothing makes sense, and we don't believe for one moment what is happening. Everything is phony. It's hard to imagine, a gay man, like Javier will suddenly find happiness in marrying Ludmila, who seeks him out and suddenly performs the magic of turning him into a straight man. Hellooo!!

Jorge Perugorria, an actor who could use speech therapy to cure his heavy Havana-accent, is an enigma in the picture. This actor, like Daisy Granados, who plays the aunt Maria, have been lucky in that they have been cast in most of the films made for the Cuban cinema. This actor must be well liked as his other career outside Cuba seems to indicate. Violeta Rodriguez, who plays Nena, is a beautiful woman. Her Nena is a bit also far fetched, but one is willing to compromise. Best of the lot is Isabel Santos, who gives Rosa dignity. Pepon Nieto's Javier doesn't add anything to the film.

For fans of Cuban films, remember, this is a Spaniard director's interpretation of a reality that he never knew!
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