The real-life story of The Cuban Five, a band of undercover operators based in Florida in the 1990s who fed information back to their superiors in Cuba but without actually engaging in any “spying”, is told in analytical detail in this enthralling, exciting and at times moving new documentary. The film is given extra resonance via in-depth interviews in which all five offer up genuine insight into the tense relationship between the US and Cuba at that time.
Ollie Aslin and Gary Lennon’s meticulously structured film manages, at times, to be as thrilling as any espionage movie, but also works as a nicely detailed re-telling of the history of Cuba, with particular focus on the Batista era of the 1950s when the island became a plush playground for wealthy Americans (and mobsters) and which eventually sparked the rebellion led by Fidel Castro. The notorious Bay Of Pigs fiasco reinforced the fractured relationship between the two countries just 90 miles apart, and subsequent years saw intense planning and plotting by anti-Castro exiles who were largely settled in Florida.
The Cuban Five – Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez – were sent undercover into the US via various routes to observe and report, and (as seen from their perspective) to protect Cuba. In interviews the five comment on how difficult it was to quietly walk out on their loved ones and assume new identities.
But they didn’t engage in James Bond spying…instead they used video equipment bought in stores, took menial jobs, and even relied on simple counting of US military aircraft at a local airbase just to try and see if there was an increase in numbers which might herald an invasion. They operated sophisticated communication systems, but essentially blended-in and led ordinary lives.
Key to the documentary is an interview with antagonist Jose Baulto, the anti-Castro campaigner who led the Brothers to the Rescue organisation, which began by flying light aircraft over the sea to try and spot and help Cubans on rafts trying to make it to the US, and eventually flew planes over Havana dropping leaflets. Also vital to the film is a series of interviews with the lawyers – for and against – who were involved in the trial after the five were arrested and charged in the US with a series of illegal activities.
The bombing of Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 on October 6 1976, on its way from Barbados to Havana, marked the first time that an aircraft had been targeted by a terrorist group, killing 73 people. Anti-Castro campaigner Orlando Bosch was arrested in Venezuela. While the incident fanned the flames of militant anti-Castro activity, it also sparked a national uproar in Cuba.
As one of the pro-Castro five recalls: ”A couple of years later a television show called In Silence It Had To Be Done was the most popular programme in Cuba. It was about someone who infiltrated into the US. A Cuban infiltrating the CIA.” For the five this was inspiration enough.
As the film progresses, the use of grainy ‘action’ footage from In Silence It Had To Be wears a little thin at times, but there is no getting away from the impressive research and detailed use of archival material (much of it courtesy of the Cuban Film Archive) that makes up Castro’s Spies.
The emotional impact comes at the end as the men are finally released under the Obama presidency as part of a prisoner swap with Cuba and finally get to go home and be reunited with loved ones. That personal aspect – given heft by the interviews with some of the wives who had been left behind – is what gives the film a compassionate edge that balances the matter-of-factness of intrigue and Cold War shenanigans, and helps make the film all the more memorable.
Ireland, 2020, 103mins
Dirs/scr: Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon
Production: Abuc Documentary Dac, Eagle Hill Films, Gambit Pictures
International sales: Submarine Entertainment
Producers: Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon
Cinematography: Raja Nundlall, Alex Sapienza, Stephen Standen
Editor: Ollie Aslin
Music: Damien Lynch
With: Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez
