lastliberal After the withdrawal of Russian support in 1994, things got harder in Cuba. Fidel allowed anyone who wanted to leave to go. Thousands built crude rafts and left. This Oscar nominated documentary tells the story of a few.The U.S. Coast Guard was ordered to take rescued Cubans to Guantanamo until a decision could be made regarding their disposition.The story of those who made a new life, with it's ups and downs, in the U.S., and the difficulties families faced due to the split, was fascinating.Some make it, some don't. Marriages are broken up and children are born. The reality of life here is brought home forcefully.Pro or anti doesn't matter. What matter is the tough times these people had trying to make it in a foreign country without education or language skills. Was their life really better?

mrflaleather05 Although I was born in Miami, my family is from Cuba. When I visited the country of my parents 3 years ago (from Havana to Pinar Del Rio trips), I was overcome with a deep sadness as to how pitiful the international media has covered the plight of Cubans on the island. Finally! This movie captures it all too well and so realistically, so accurately, so heroically! It's about time! Regardless of how one feels about Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton and the changes the US has made on Cuba's refugee policies, the people of Cuba live in absolute misery. No other 3rd world country in the Western Hemisphere has so much misery as Cuba. Economic poverty is not Cuba's worst problem. Misery is! Everywhere I went people on the island of Cuba lived in misery, fear, mistrust, suspicion, a basic ethos are missing, a will to live is gone, anxiety, depression, loneliness, desperateness and more. If you want to understand the situation in Cuba as it is today, watch this film. Pity that Hollywood films in America don't report the truth as it is, without getting bogged down on their stupid political self-righteous statements from their comfortable palatial Hollywood homes.Watch this movie. It's great!

jotix100 I missed this documentary when it ran for about two weeks at the Film Forum. I was hoping that it would resurface again, as was the case, when it was shown on cable not too long ago. Both film makers, Carlos Bosch and Jose Ma. Domenech must be commended for tackling the story about seven or eight "raft people" in pursuing their dream to go to the United States in search of a better life. Cuba, after more of 45 years of communist rule, has been a monumental failure. I am sure that some people will argue that because the embargo and American policies toward that nation, things turned out the way they did. In the end one dictator was replaced by another. The paradise that was promised at the beginning of the revolution is still to be realized. In order to survive in Cuba today, one has to have either relatives abroad, or to belong to the inner circle. No one wants to face the reality that when Cuba was a Soviet Union colony, they could buy whatever it was needed, either on credit, or through gifts in way of oil and basic heavy machinery from its Russian bosses.That a lot of the population wants to get out of the "tropical paradise" is no surprise. In the case of the people singled out in the documentary, only a few get to fulfill their dreams and get to live a modified "American Dream", while the other half failed miserably, maybe because the reality of the dream turned for them into a nightmare.Of all the cases presented, only about three make something out of themselves. Their idea of how capitalism works is much more of whatever dreams they might have had. The reality of life in the United States, with its harsh realities, play havoc with a few of the new immigrants. That is the case of the former prostitute who turn into a drug dealer and the young black sculptor who gets involved with the wrong kind of crowd in New York. This is a must see documentary that stays neutral neither in favor of the exodus, or against it.

kentgetbent This documentary is a gripping look at seven Cuban's daring escapes from their home country, and depressing US destinations. The movie beautifully portrays Cuba in a negative but wistful light, a light that seems all the better when the battered Cubans begin their bland new lives as Americans. Family drama overshadows the greater drama of the desperate exits from Cuba, but in the end nothing has changed. The little these people had in Cuba is eventually pined over when they are left with nothing in the US. An amazing but depressing film, Balseros shows us that the grass is always greener on the other side; except in America, where there is no grass left.