‘Sin La Habana’ Review: A Long Way From Home

Kaveh Nabatian’s “Sin La Habana” is a research in contrasts: the sticky, vibrant warmth of Cuba’s capital versus the pulverizing winter of Montreal; a spontaneous road efficiency versus the inflexible formality of a ballet studio audition; a deliberate marriage versus an impulsive romance.

The story of Leonardo (Yonah Acosta) — an Afro-Cuban dancer who seduces an Iranian Canadian vacationer, Nasim (Aki Yaghoubi), right into a sham marriage with the hopes of securing passage to Canada for himself and his girlfriend (Evelyn Castroda O’Farrill) — is a well-known immigrant story with predictably disastrous outcomes. Upon shifting in with Nasim, his new spouse, Leonardo finds that life within the north just isn’t solely tough to regulate to, however not practically as liberating as promised, as he faces the identical racism at dance studios and workshops that drove him to go away Cuba within the first place.

Nasim, suspecting that her reference to Leonardo could have been fraudulent from the start, nonetheless tries to construct their relationship and defend him from her insular Iranian household and ex-husband. And in his absence, Leonardo’s girlfriend, Sara, sacrifices their future collectively with a purpose to get a leg-up in her profession as a lawyer.

Nabatian is sympathetic to all three characters and their lack of simple selections, and his eye for small cultural particulars and rituals — the intricacies of Afro-Cuban dance, the tiles on the ground of a Havana house, the teacups at a gathering for Nasim’s household — enforces how identification continues to form their lives at the same time as they’re removed from dwelling. While the destiny of their relationships is left ambiguous, these transient moments linger lengthy after Leonardo has carried out his final dance in entrance of the digital camera.

Sin La Habana
Not rated. In Spanish, English and Persian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. Rent or purchase on most main platforms.