Wonderfully offbeat film!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Charming and brutal

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I really like the movie and the idea itself, that using a camera and recording videos you can watch and notice how any country could be changed to better or to worst

I've tried to follow the high rating reviews and gave it a try. But what I saw was lot of footages of Castro this and Castro that. The common people showed in this so-called documentary didn't seem to qualify for the real majority, but a phony facade of living in poverty and shortage of everything, the Cuban people still enjoy their lives and quite agreeable to what they don't have and couldn't have. This guy carrying a camera was more like a tourist filming what he chose to shot but didn't really want to dig into the real situation and the peoples' real lives and living standard which is so far pathetic and miserable. A piece of the island is occupied by a foreign country also the sponsor of the international embargo against Cuba. Tens of thousands Cubans were killed or still in jail, millions escaped to the nearby imperial America as refugees. When Obama decided to defrost the enemy status quo, these refugees in their sanctuary country would have to give up their refugee identity and lost their refugees' benefits and welfares, and I think they are now more angry at the American government than against their mother island. This guy didn't not visit the Little Havana in Florida, doing some in-depth interviews on these refugees, most of them are now living in abundant status. He just focused on the people on the island, but how could he get a realistic picture of what they really have to deal with on a daily basis since Cuba in fact is still a communist country, nobody could speak freely or show what they really think about.If we also like this guy and consider him did a great job, then you are just like him, a tourist just off the cruise ship.

This is a sorry excuse of a documentary that completely covers up the horrible atrocities committed against the Cuban people by the Castros. It tries to act like it's being unbiased but it constantly portrays Fidel Castro as a very nice and misunderstood leader who is a victim of the U.S. embargo. The filmmaker gives him presents? Disgusting! I don't think anyone would have approved of a documentary of Hitler walking around being a likable guy, but somehow it is okay to do it with Fidel Castro even though he's also a mass murderer.I lived in Cuba in the 70s and the food rations and blackouts that are only shown here during the 90s already existed. While he shows briefly the attacks on the people trying to leave to the U.S. in 1980, he doesn't show anything about the people who are sent to jail simply for being critical of the government. There's mention of the free healthcare, but no mention of the fact that there are no medicines available since the 70s not just the 90s. And while Castro always blamed the embargo for the shortage of food and medicine, he continued becoming richer and richer off of the exported goods through cheap labor. He owned property all over and lived in the lap of luxury while his people starved. Where does this show children being forced to cut sugar cane for free during the summers since 7th grade? Where does this show men and women being forced to serve in the military? Where is the mention of the rampant prostitution of women and children, because that is the only way that people can make dollars and euros to be able to feed their families? Where is the interview of Cubans in the U.S. who can speak freely about the atrocities committed in Cuba? Do you really believe that millions of people have fled the island purely because of economic reasons? You interviewed people who could not speak freely and record that as news?Mr. Alpert, you are no journalist. You have created nothing here but Cuban government propaganda and you should be ashamed of yourself. You are a sorry excuse of a human.

It's hard not to like the unspoiled, friendly and proud people profiled in this documentary. The director remarkably touches bases with both common folk like the three elderly farming brothers who make up the heart of the film and Castro himself. There's a sense of resiliency and humor that is inspiring. You also get to witness an American's view of the roller coaster ride Cuba has taken from the heady days of revolution to the horror of the 90's to 2016, when life has improved immeasurably for the subjects, some of whom have gone from gaunt to almost portly. Whatever your opinion is of Castro and his autocratic tendencies, this documentary concentrates its light on the Cuban people, their relationships with each other, their country and with the cameraman. I was surprised at how open Cubans are in criticizing their leader and their predicament, especially in the horrible 90's. One gets the feeling from western media that Cubans have been silenced and jailed under Castro for their views but here, nobody seems to be intimidated at all in speaking of their anger and resentment over the way the country has been run. By the end, I felt close to each of this film's subjects to the point where I was disappointed that two Cubans who emigrated to the USA during the later stages of filming are not interviewed after their exodus to America.