Más Allá Del Mar (Beyond the Sea)
USA/Cuba, 2003, 80 min. Directed by Lisandro Pérez-Rey
It
began with a bus crashing through the gates of an embassy in Havana and
unraveled into one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of human
migrations. As Fidel Castro briefly allowed Cubans to leave the island,
nearly 130,000 of them left their homeland in an unrelenting stream of
vessels bound for America. 25 years later, the personal stories surrounding
the Mariel Boatlift continue to resonate with an energy that can only
be described as surreal and powerful. Weaving together these riveting
stories along with rare historical images and footage from present-day
Cuba, this film recreates this "explosion of 1980," a crisis
that shook the very foundations of Cuban as well as American society.
With unprecedented access to archival material, and numerous interviews
to “murielitos,” Pérez-Rey constructs the most complete
work to date on the infamous Mariel Boatlift.
“Impressive both for effectively documenting the scope of the exodus and for capturing its participants’ disparate tales, “Beyond the Sea” manages to be at once historically elucidating and personally compelling.” — Lael Loewenstein, Variety
“The film is most powerful when it allows its subjects to talk about the oppressive regime they fled... the survivors' hopes, dreams and emotions always remain in focus.” — Raven Snook, Time Out New York
“Beyond the Sea grants a quiet dignity to its subjects without sanctifying them. And the less-than-ideal outcome of many of their lives rings all the more powerfully for being so plainly presented.” — David Ng, Village Voice
“Lisandro Pérez-Rey's excellent documentary is a riveting account of one of the most extraordinary events in U.S. immigration history... Perez-Rey's succinct documentary does a superb job of shedding light on circumstances that, for a variety of reasons, have been misrepresented and badly misunderstood.” — Ken Fox, TV Guide
Audience Award - Made in Miami Film and Video Festival
2003
San Diego Latino Film Festival 2003
Providence Latin American Film Festival 2004
One World Film Festival (Czech Republic) 2004