HAVANA COYOTES is the first American film shot in Cuba with an all-Cuban cast since the 1959 Revolution. A narrative feature, COYOTES, explores the prejudices, misconceptions, and deep love of country that persist to this day between the US and Cuba.
Julia, a Cuban-American, visits Cuba for the first time to collect the ashes of her recently-deceased grandmother. While there, she meets three Cuban contemporaries, Olivia, Carlos and Miguel, and comes face-to-face with the life she could have lived had her father not been sent as a boy to Miami during “Operation Peter Pan.”
While sheltering in place during an unprovoked military attack on Havana, “Operation Coyote,” the four are forced to confront their own prejudices and misconceptions about each other and their countries. HAVANA COYOTES explores the disparate ways we can all be “coyotes” in our relationships with others.
FORMAT: Feature Film
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 19 minutes
GENRE: Drama, Romance, Cross-Cultural, Political
LOCATION: Havana, Cuba
Director's Statement
Benjamin Orifici
"To enter Cuba incognito in August 2024, we brought all our equipment into the country in suitcases. Several of us were detained for hours. We encountered storms, daily electricity blackouts, and intense heat. The all-Cuban cast and Cuban support staff worked selflessly to make this film a reality—even in the face of intrinsic danger to their own liberty.
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I believe that HAVANA COYOTES captures the zeitgeist of today’s Cubans – the trials they must endure in a perpetually-sanctioned, post-pandemic economy. At the same time, COYOTES is a love story that reveals the sincere pride and passion Cubans maintain for their country.
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I started visiting Havana in 2015 as a board member of a Cuban cultural foundation. Now, after 30+ visits, I am still in awe of this city, so full of passion, music, rhythm – amid such economic calamity. When I look back, the seeds of HAVANA COYOTES took root during that first trip. Ten years later, it has finally emerged—fully grown—and ready to spread its seeds to viewers who have but a glancing stereotype of this rich and wonderous country."
