Cuban Network

Because much of my joy in reliving history is through cinema, I eagerly went to Netflix to experience writer/director Olivier Assayas's Wasp Network (with writer Fernando Morais as well). Having never thought about the spies in the 90's who infiltrated the anti-Castro movement in Florida, I now have a vivid picture of them and their heroic, self-sacrificing for communist Cuba.

This sometimes-incoherent docudrama (just too many spies dancing in the espionage world with nary a pause to figure if they're working for the rebels, the Cuban government, or the FBI). Olga Salaneuva (Penelope Cruz), wife of ace pilot for the Cuban government, Rene Gonzalez (Edgar Ramirez), who secretly infiltrates the rebels without her knowing, provides a dramatic glue as she interacts also with other recruits for the government through her husband.

Gerardo Hernandez (Gael Garcia Bernal) is responsible for supervising the spies in Florida into the Wasp Network. Already you can see my challenge making coherent an unwieldy assembly of heroes and scalawags-I have yet to adequately assess the worth of the film.

I'm going to do that now while I have much else of the plot left undone: The excellent cast and the stellar DP's (Yorick Le Saux and Denis Lenoir) have reminded us what a romantic and troubled island Cuba has been since Fidel Castro began his long rule. With cooperation from Cuba, the colorful decadence and charming decay of that festive nation are on display. Old American cars and shabby multicolored buildings create the perfect metaphor for the revolution with its romantic aspirations and real-time rationing of food and gas, enough to make emigration to the US a realistic goal.

Assayas has too much to cover, but what he does, when you factor out the excessive time given to domestic challenges and even a wedding, is fascinating to see how much these spies have given up for Cuba. The history is well known-The spies are caught and mostly turn on each other to accept the FBI's plea deals.

Communists still rule Cuba, and it suffers from the sanctions the Us has firmly held since Castro. In spite of that relatively poor profile, people are willing to sacrifice for Cuban ideals by joining the Wasp Network-and it stings. The movie, however, is historically and visually balm for the history-loving cinephile.

Way better than it's current rating of 5.8 would indicate imo. With a great cast ( how can you go wrong with Penny Cruz, Ana de Armis and Wagner Moura ?!) and interesting storyline it's a cross between Narcos and Syriana with better landscape.

Really watchable even though it hops around a bit in timelines and highlights the duplicity of both the Castro and US governments.

Without getting onto the political correctness of the film, it was fairly entertaining but lacked direction. The narrative was confusing at times and certain stories seemed to be forgotten or abandoned half way through

I had a great time watching this movie. It is always good to hear the other side of political stories. Yes, there's always another side. So, the movie is entertaining for sure. Every bad (one star) review here is simply politically biased. It is just people that can't stand Cuba's point of view. My advise is that you should watch and judge it by yourself. It's not supposed to be a documentary, but it is an incredible story based on real facts and real people. Have fun.

Hello! An automatic corrector keeps modifying my original text, creating a real nonsense; hence the following modification, withnhopes that it will appear unaltered:

The film proceeds in a deliberately disjointed manner, slowly revealing the human aspects as well as complex ramifications in the Cuban diaspora in Miami, as revealed through two women for long held in ignorance, and especially through the character interpreted by Penelope Cruz, remarkable in her constrained sensitivity. That story is widely documented, for anyone being genuinely interested in knowing the truth, including the fact that the Cuban air force had indeed deliberately shot down two planes from the "Brothers to the Rescue association" whilst they were back in international space. Also widely documented is the central role of the abominable master-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, acting as the armed right-hand man of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), led by Jorge Mas Canosa and Alberto Hernandez. The very Posada Carriles, having been for a decade involved in illegal operations of the CIA, from Irangate to the Contras; furthermore involved, with Pinochet's DINA and other anti-Castrists Cubans, in the attack on former Chilean minister Orlando Letelier and the explosion of commercial "Flight 455 Cubana" in 1976. In a subsequent interview published by the New York Times, he also acknowledged the fact of being the organizer of the series of bombing in numerous Havana hotels in the nineties. The fact that such a character did so often and for so long benefit from the complicity (i.e. his escape during trial in Venezuela) of the CIA, as well as the protection of the U.S. diplomatic, political and judiciary apparatus remains a historical question. As to the "Cuban Five", the evidences are that they were neither granted a fair trial, in violation of U.S. rules of procedures and constitutional rights, nor proper conditions of detention. To the extent that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was led to adopting a report stating the following: "it arises from the facts and circumstances in which the trial took place and from the nature of the charges and the harsh sentences handed down to the accused that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity and impartiality that is required in order to conform to the standards of a fair trial as defined in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States of America is a party."