slrosen-28359 The movie Cosas que dejé en la Habana was released in 1998 by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon and has definitely done lots of good for the public. A good movie can have many different parts of it, but one of them is an appropriate, often profound message. Aragon uses the generation of those fleeing Cuba for a better life (in this case, to Spain) to educate the greater audience on problems that immigrants face. This movie focuses around two separate groups of people. The first are the three sisters, Rosa, Ludmila, and Nena. They are all originally from Cuba but move to Madrid to have a better life. There they stay with Maria, their aunt. She is also from Cuba but has lived in Madrid for a while so she knows both ways of life. The other group is that of Barbaro, Nati, and Igor. In my opinion, I think that these two groups should cross paths sooner than they end up doing. In the movie (spoiler alert) Igor has a relationship with both Nena and her friend Azucena (which at first is kept secret from both of the women). At first I was a little confused about what was going on because it was never really explained, but then I realized that Igor was cheating on both of them. This movie is based in the 1990s (when it was made) when Cuba was going through an economic crises. Thousands of people had to leave the only home they had ever known, in order to find opportunity to even just survive. Personally I like that this movie isn't really depressing, even though what these people had to go through was. Aragon definitely does a good job of shedding light on the history of Cuba and Spain while still keeping the audience intrigued. Things like this are hard to watch and learn about, but it is absolutely necessary. Aragon does a good job of using the three sisters to show the struggle in a more relatable way (at least it was relatable for me because I am only a bit younger). I also like the character of Javier because Maria does not really care about his sexuality and how he does not truly want to marry one of her nieces, which to me adds some comedic relief to the stressful plot. Lastly I like how the title plays into the story. The whole time I was watching, I was waiting to find out what "things" they left in Havana. However after watching the whole thing, I realized maybe the title isn't referring to physical things. I think it is referring to the life, culture, and love they had to leave behind for a better life. I would recommend Cosas que deje en la Habana to people who already know a bit about this economic crisis because it will be less confusing from the start. I would not recommend it to people who purely like comedy, because the humor is pretty cut and dry. I also would not recommend it to people who cannot stand slow-progressing movies, because this one takes a while for the ending to finally come, and like I said before it takes quite a while for the two main groups to finally cross paths. However overall I recommend this movie because it both is educational and entertaining for the greater good.

jotix100 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!

esteban1747 Cubans go away from their country looking for better standard of life, some go to USA and others go to Europe. The reality is that they were, are and will be Cubans for ever, missing always their motherland. This film is an evidence of homesickness by Cubans. It also shows how the naive emigrants are sometime exploited by even experienced compatriots.

Gonzalo Melendez (gonz30) This movie, a Cuban-Spanish co-production, was written by a Spaniard who admittedly remembers his mother's nostalgia for Havana of the 50's. The first problem lies there in: the Havana of the 50's is not the Havana of the 90's these ladies just left. How can you romanticize or be nostalgic about America's Beirut? Secondly, the refugees from Havana, and their overly capitalistic (in the worst of contexts) aunt are all Cuban state paid and controlled actors. They appear in most if not all examples of this new 90s genre, the Cuban-European co-production, where Cuba supplies the raw materials (actors, technical support, sets, locations) and the Europeans (WHAT ELSE?)the money and distribution. The Cuban government gets its much needed hard currency this way, and shows a gullible world how conscious Cubans are of their plight and what an open society they live in (STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE, one of the first of this genre is akin to the Chinese depicting their compassion on Tianemen Square).The film stars the omni present Jorge Perugorria (one of Cuba's cash cows),and former Communist propaganda movie star Daisy Granados as the evil, capitalist aunt, as well as the daughter of one of the Cuban regime's signature musicians, the very loyal to the party Silvio Rodriguez. Kind of like an Albanian Kossovar family drama made by Milosevic's handpicked Serb stars. A fantasy, and enjoyable at that if you can understand the irony of it all.