Movie-Balseros

Balseros (2003) is a documentary about Cuban refugees that came over to the US on rafts in a great exodus in 1994.

The film follows certain members of this group that make it over to the US and sees how they fair, even as far as 5 years later, and it is interesting to follow these disparate people, and to see the lives they make for themselves in America...and it says as much about America, as it does about these individuals.

The film also intercuts between America and Havana, to the refugees and the families they left behind. The documentarians bring videos of the new Americans to show the Cuban families, and vice versa, to illicit raw response to seeing loved ones so far away. This is effective to a point, and then seems somewhat callous, and I really think could have been left out, or used more effectively as video letters to loved ones.

Overall, Balseros was a good documentary, not soaring to great. It does score in underscoring the difference between what is seen as the promise of America, and what the truth of dealing with American life is...which is sometimes a very mixed bag. I thought it also underscores the same thing about Cuba...while poor, and not offering much economically, it does offer some things some of these refugees seem to find hard to find in America...a sense of community and family, shared experience and shared hope.

Does one country offer it all?