The story of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. Raised in the Oriente Province of Cuba in the 1940s, Arenas began his life-long love of the sea and water. Leaving home as a young adolescent, he moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the revolutionary spirit and joins a circle of writers and artists.

His first novel, "Singing from the Well," is published in Cuba, but as Castro's oppressive regime gathers force, Arenas' homosexuality and political writing make him a target. After being falsely accused of molestation, Arenas is arrested and imprisoned at El Morro. Eventually released from prison after dehumanizing treatment, Arenas flees Cuba in the 1980 Mariel Harbor boatlift.

Moving to New York with his friend Lazaro Gomez Carilles, Arenas' hopes for a new life are destroyed by AIDS, and he dies in 1993, at the age of 45.

Directed by
Julian Schnabel

Cast
Javier Bardem - Reinaldo Arenas
Johnny Depp - Lieutenant Victor
Olivier Martinez - Lazaro Gomez Carriles
Andrea Di Stefano - Pepe Malas
Sean Penn - Cuco Sanchez
Michael Wincott - Herberto Zorilla Ochoa
Najwa Nimri Fina - Zorilla Correa
Hector Babenco - Virgilio Pinera

Production Co.
Grandview Pictures
El Mar Pictures

Produced by
Julian Schnabel
Olatz Lopez Garmendia
Jon Kilik

Studio
20th Century Fox Studios

Writer
Reynaldo Arenas
Cunningham O'Keefe

Music
Carter Burwell