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Castro's Spies

Play trailer 1:44 Poster for Castro's Spies Released May 13, 2022 1h 43m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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93% Tomatometer 14 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
The thrilling story of an elite group of Cuban spies sent undercover to the US in the 1990s. From their recruitment, training and eventual capture on US soil; this film peers into a secret world of false identities, love affairs and betrayal. Using never seen before footage from the Cuban Film Institute's archive and first-hand testimony from the people at the heart of this story, Castro's Spies gives a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of a spy -- where the stakes are life and death.
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Castro's Spies

Critics Reviews

View All (14) Critics Reviews
Noel Murray Los Angeles Times “Castro’s Spies” becomes genuinely challenging once Aslin and Lennon get to the trials of these men... May 15, 2022 Full Review Naemi Victoria Film Ireland Magazine Opposition is a central theme of Castro’s Spies. Like a red thread, it connects the more abstract level of opposing political systems with the personal recollections... Nov 15, 2024 Full Review Hilary A White Sunday Independent (Ireland) The use of both factual archive footage and clips from a schlocky Latino spy show creates an intriguing contrast between the glamorised connotations of espionage and the unhappy, stressful reality. Jul 6, 2022 Full Review Paul Whitington Irish Independent Castro’s Spies paints a vivid portrait of a historical time and place through interviews with all the main players, and particularly the spies themselves, Rated: 4/5 Jul 1, 2022 Full Review Benjamin Franz Film Threat This is a remarkable slice of history. Rated: 8/10 Jun 14, 2022 Full Review Dennis Harvey 48 Hills It’s an engrossing tale underlining what a friend’s sister (who’s big in politics there) once told me: Miami is many things, but what it has the most of is corruption. May 23, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1) audience reviews
Audience Member An elite group of Cuban intelligence agents — recruited and trained in the U.S. — are released in America in this film that shows what it's really like to be a spy. Using never seen before footage from the Cuban Film Institute's archive and first-hand testimony from the people who actually lived to tell, Castro's Spies is an intriguing doc about the era of Cold War espionage. This film tells the true story of the Cuban Five — Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René Gonzále — agents who were given new identities and sent to Miami to watch over people of interest for the Cuban government. Meanwhile, their families were told they were deserters and traitors. In September 1998, the Five were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government and other illegal activities — including failure to register as a foreign agent, which seems like a strange crime when you're a spy. Three years later, the Cuban government admitted that they were intelligence agents looking at the Cuban exile community, not the U.S. government. The Five appealed their convictions, which were overturned in 2005, then reinstated shortly afterward. The Supreme Court refused to review their case and it wasn't until 2014 that the last of the Five was able to return to Cuba. Directors and writers Ollie Aslin and Gary Lennon have taken footage from the past and mixed it with interviews with the Five, their compatriots and their enemies. This is a story I'd never heard before and I was so interested to learn more about this secret tale. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Castro's Spies

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis The thrilling story of an elite group of Cuban spies sent undercover to the US in the 1990s. From their recruitment, training and eventual capture on US soil; this film peers into a secret world of false identities, love affairs and betrayal. Using never seen before footage from the Cuban Film Institute's archive and first-hand testimony from the people at the heart of this story, Castro's Spies gives a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of a spy -- where the stakes are life and death.
Director
Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon
Producer
Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon, Kristen Weber
Screenwriter
Ollie Aslin, Gary Lennon
Distributor
Gravitas Ventures
Production Co
Screen Ireland, Abuc Documentary Dac , Gambit Pictures, Eagle Hill Films
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 13, 2022, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 13, 2022
Runtime
1h 43m
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