 | Category: | Movies | | Genre: | Documentary |
Academy Award nominations to Carlos Bosch and Marcos Loris Omedes - 2004.
In the summer of 1994 following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, nearly 50,000 Cubans left their homes and, filled with yearning for a better and freer life, jumped aboard homemade rafts they had assembled with family and friends and headed for Florida. Many died at sea. Some who were fortunate enough to survive were detained for months at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.
Thanks to the intervention of various nonprofit agencies and Catholic groups, many of them were able to find homes and jobs in the United States. Others relied upon relatives already established in Miami, New York City.
A team of Spanish television reporters filmed and interviewed seven Cubans and their families just before they were to make the dangerous quest to America and follows their adventures over a seven-year period.
Balseros shows how difficult it is for these refugees to adapt to life in America while working at menial jobs. For many of them there will always be a question in mind: was it worthy, leaving my country, my family behind? Can we really find happiness elsewhere? 
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