Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.

Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• Olga: Penélope Cruz
• René: Edgar Ramírez
• Viramontez: Gael García Bernal
• Ana Margarita: Ana de Armas
• Roque: Wagner Moura
• Basulto: Leonardo Sbaraglia
• Cruz León: Nolan Guerra Fernández
• Irma: Osdeymi Pastrana Miranda
• Luis Posada Carriles: Tony Plana
• PUND’s Pilot: Julian Flynn
• Viramontez’s Wife: Anel Perdomo
• Roque’s Cousin: Julio Gabay
• Tete: Amada Morado
• Panzón: Leandro Cáceres
• René’s FBI Contact: Ernesto Ruiz Faxas
• CANF Activist #1: Harlys Becerra
• CANF Activist #2: Gabriel Buenaventura
• Irma (6 Years Old): Carolina Peraza Matamoros
• Colonel Rabeiro: Juan Carlos Roque Moreno
• Officer Caballero: Edwin Fernández
• Officer Estrada: Feliberto Beatón
• State Security Agent with Olga: Javier Guillarte Fernández
• Immigration Agent with Olga: Yura López
• René’s Brother: Raúl Bravo
• Tannery Manager: Elbert Álvarez
• Inglés Ahora Boss: Philip Stanton
• Jorge Mas Canosa: Omar Ali
• Castro’s Envoy: Juan Ángel Samper
• Bill Clinton’s Advisor #1: Chris Gillette
• Bill Clinton’s Advisor #2: Stephen William Tenner
• Bill Clinton’s Envoy to Cuba: René Flinn
• Judge: Adria Perez
• Narrator (voice): Carlos Leal
• Raúl Labanino Salazar: Saúl Rojas
• Fernando González: Noslen Sánchez
• Antonio Guerrero: Denys Ramos Antúnez
• Joseph Santos: Alberto González Corona
• Amarylis Silveiro: Dánae Hernández Reyes
• Nilo Hernández: Yasmani Guerrero
• Linda Hernández: Yaité Ruiz
• Pilot Cessna #1: Luis A. Batista
• Co-pilot Cessna #1: Miguel Ángel García
• Pilot Cessna #2: Daniel Romero Pildaín
• Co-pilot Cessna #2: Luis Miguel B.
• Basulto’s Co-pilot: Abel López Cedre
• Anti-Castroist Commando #1: Teherán Aguilar
• Anti-Castroist Commando #2: Armando Palma
• Anti-Castroist Commando #3: Egor Viga
• Guantánamo Base US Officer #1: Thomas Michael Dubyna
• Guantánamo Base US Officer #2: Ruairi Rhodes
• FBI Agent – Stakeout #1: Brendan McNamee
• FBI Agent – Stakeout #2: Rob Harvie
• FBI Agent – Stakeout #3: Michael Strelow
• US Coast Guard: Brannon Cross
• FBI Agent #1: Adri Torrijos
• FBI Agent #2: Jhoey Carol
• Cuban Airbase Controller: Ilianki Vera Rivero
• Cuban Airbase Officer: Jorge Reinaldo Ramírez Fernández
• Havana Airport Controller: Armando Suávez Cobián
• US Airbase Controller: Steve Howard
• Havana Airport Customs Agent: Lorenzo Rodríguez César
• Cruz León’s Taxi Driver: Antulio Marín
• Luis Posada Carriles’ Interviewer #1: Colin Laverty
• Luis Posada Carriles’ Interviewer #2: Gregory Binowski
• Luis Posada Carriles’ Interviewer #3: Yailene Sierra
• Roque’s Interviewer: Patricia González Ciuffardi
• René’s Press Conference: Juan Jacomino
• René’s Press Conference: Alexander Meneghini
• Basulto’s Press Conference: Michael Weissenstein
• Basulto’s Press Conference: Patrick Perry Oppman
• Basulto’s Press Conference: Will Grant
• Newscaster at Wedding: Johanna Sol
• Italian Victim: Giuseppe Scarfari
• Italian Tourist #1: Luisa Marcolina Ausenda
• Italian Tourist #2: Gabriele Filippone
• Hotel Capri Concierge: Yanelis Tejera
• Nurse: Casandra Lungu
• Lady on Plane: María del Carmen Muina
• Gladys: Pilar Varo
• Ivett (18 Months): Jade Kayla Lage Maynier
• Baby Yvett: Leia Sarmiento
• Baby Yvett: Alma Shamira Parilla
• Self (archive footage): Bill Clinton
• Self (archive footage): Roberto Robaina
• Self (archive footage): Fidel Castro

Film Crew:

• Director of Photography: Yorick Le Saux
• Casting Director: Antoinette Boulat
• Production Design: François-Renaud Labarthe
• Sound Mixer: Nicolas Cantin
• Director: Olivier Assayas
• Editor: Simon Jacquet
• Director of Photography: Denis Lenoir
• Producer: Charles Gillibert
• First Assistant Director: Matthew Gledhill
• Costume Designer: Jürgen Doering
• Co-Producer: Matteo De Castello
• Co-Producer: Geneviève Lemal
• Executive Producer: Lourdes García
• Executive Producer: Adrián Guerra
• Book: Fernando Morais
• Executive Producer: Fernando Fraiha
• Producer: Rodrigo Teixeira
• Sound Mixer: Alek Goosse
• Producer: Lourenço Sant’Anna
• Executive Producer: Sylvie Barthet
• Visual Effects Director: Thierry Delobel
• Associate Producer: Stuart Manashil
• Sound Editor: Gert Janssen
• Visual Effects Supervisor: Mikaël Tanguy
• Foley Artist: Céline Bernard
• Script Supervisor: Christelle Meaux
• Makeup Artist: Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen
• Hairstylist: Peggy Bernaerts
• Executive Producer: Ruben Feffer
• Casting Director: Anna González
• Executive Producer: Lía Rodríguez
• Executive Producer: Sophie Mas
• Property Master: Edouard Blaise
• Casting Director: Valerie Daniella Hernández Oloffson
• Executive Producer: Miguel Ángel Faura
• Art Direction: Onelio Larralde
• First Assistant Director: Luc Bricault
• Original Music Composer: Eduardo Cruz
• Art Direction: Romain Gautry
• Executive Producer: Alan Terpins
• Sound Editor: Charles Valentin
• Executive Producer: Rodrigo Gutiérrez
• Executive Producer: Celina Torrealba
• Executive Producer: Guga Ketzer
• Executive Producer: Paulo Vidiz
• Executive Producer: Paulo Souss
• Executive Producer: Beatriz Lobato Grabowski
• Co-Producer: Alexander Mallet-Guy
• Casting Director: María Mercedes Hernández Lázaro
• Special Effects Supervisor: François Philippi

Movie Reviews:

• CinemaSerf: Given the intriguing story and really good cast behind this, it ought to have been good. It isn’t. It meanders all over the place with way too many plots, sub plots and storylines all ambling about devoid of a solid narrative. It could be a six-parter if it wanted to be, but as a single film it just doesn’t really gel at all. Olivier Assayas clearly has some skin in the game as he sets out to interweave the political and personal stories of 5 Cubans who end up, by various means, in Florida in the 1990s. Tourist pilot Edgar Ramirez (“Rene”) is one of then, who leaves home and stunningly gorgeous wife Penelope Cruz (“Olga”) one day, pinches a plane and defects to the US where, together with “Juan Pablo” (Wagner Moura) he is soon part of a network that effectively tries to assist Cuban defectors to get to the USA. Their determination to destabilise the Castro administration starts to lead them into more complex, moral choices whilst we continue to see his wife struggling with day to day life back home with their daughter. That’s just the first half hour… There are plenty more characters, and storylines; CIA involvement; the infamous hotel bombs of 1997 – all told in a rigidly episodic fashion. It is trying to cram way too much into two hours and as such the characterisations suffer. It’s not that you don’t like or sympathise with them, it’s that you don’t ever feel you really know or understand them – Gael García Bernal as the equivalent of “Control” somehow lacks any menace or sophistication too. There is some beautiful photography of the island of Cuba itself, and of the Canary Islands, and it looks great, the cast look great, but it needed much more focus and much tighter plot filtration.
• tmdb28039023: Wasp Network (2019) is “based on a true story”, but its makers may be looking at reality through ‘beer goggles.’ For example, there is a character played by Ana de Armas, who regardless of her talent – or lack thereof – reminds me of a young Tiffani Amber Thiessen. During the epilogue, however, we are shown a photo of the corresponding real person, and what we see is a thick, plump, buxom, etc., etc. woman, and there is nothing wrong with it just like there is nothing wrong with de Armas being slender; the problem lies in that the truth is manipulated to make it more attractive to the public. If director Olivier Assayas takes such liberty with a supporting character, how do we know what’s real and what’s a complete fabrication?

  In keeping with this pattern, the locations are authentic, but even if the events of the film were equally genuine, Assayas manages to needlessly complicate them. In principle, I have nothing against non-linear stories told non-sequentially, but this script would already be hard to follow, with its espionage and counter-espionage, moles, agents and double-agents, and above all its moral ambiguity and political contradictions. This material calls for simplification, not convolution. I mean, if your movie is a quote-unquote true story, wouldn’t you want to push the truth all the way to the foreground? What’s the use of knowing what really “happened” if we don’t understand how and why it happened?

  Having said that, Wagner Moura is perfect for Wasp Network for the same reasons that made him a wrong choice for the title role in Sergio. In both movies he is snooty, arrogant, and shallow; unbecoming characteristics for a noble United Nations diplomat, but which fit his opportunistic character like a glove here – a character who also happens to have the best lines in the movie ([devouring a Big Mac] “after years of eating McCastro’s, McDonald’s is a delicacy;” or, when a Cuban journalist asks him, while his wife watches the interview from Miami, what he misses most about his life on American soil: [thinks for a moment] “My Jeep Cherokee”).