The Italian-Cuban film Baracoa, by director Luis Ernesto Doñas, will hold its national premiere today in Havana, at the Yara cinema, after obtaining public support and a successful run through international competitions.

The screening will be attended by the director, producers, production team and cast, the Cuban Institute of Art and Film Industry (Icaic) reported.

This road "dramedy," Doñas's feature debut, explores the bond between Felipe (played by renowned Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini), an Italian revolutionary who was a friend of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and his son Pepe (Carlos Luis González), marked by homophobic prejudices.

After the death of the father, Pepe and the doctor Jimmy (Yadier Fernández) embark on a car trip from Havana to the easternmost city of the island, a journey that becomes a voyage of profound personal transformation.

"It is a film about love, friendship and good feelings," Doñas told Prensa Latina, highlighting that "that purity of feelings that crosses the screen is what, in some way, manages to connect with audiences."

The filmmaker also described the work as a "return to the seed, to the first town founded and to our Cubaness."

Baracoa reaches its national run after winning the Audience Award of the Official Competition and the Best Screenplay award (written by Doñas and Filippo Ascione) at the 41st Trieste Ibero-Latin American Film Festival in Italy.

Likewise, at the 46th Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema last year, it received the Súmate diversity collateral award and a special mention from the Agrarian University of Havana. Out of competition, it participated in the Taormina Film Festival and was presented at the Lucca event.

With cinematography by Lorenzo Casadio Vannuci, original music by soprano Bárbara Llanes and editing by Francesco Galli, the cast is completed by Italians Giovanni Giusto, alongside Cubans Carlos Pérez Peña and Ana Gloria Buduén, among others.

The film, a co-production between Pointmedia Italia SRL and De La Huerta Producciones, will reach Cuban screens with screenings scheduled for 5:00 p.m. local time, with the box office open from 4:00 p.m.