Aunque estés lejos (2003)

A Cuban-American woman flies to her homeland to bury her aunt and debates staying because of a man in the bittersweet melodrama Aunque estés lejos (2003). Juan Carlos Tabió directs a multilayered film in which Marilyn’s (Susana Pérez) anguished decision whether to remain in Cuba or return to the United States is really the conceit of a pair of screenwriters. Once the woman’s plight is revealed to be a story within a story, Tabió turns his gaze to the artists for whom Marilyn’s fictional tale comes to have personal resonance. Elegant Mirta Ibarra stars as screenwriter Mercedes, who shows that she knows a thing or two about the passion she writes about during a quick tryst. Laura Ramos plays a saxophone-playing surrogate for Marilyn, who tries to one-up Ms. Ibarra in an absolutely smokin’ sex scene.