Andy Garcia
© AFP Michal CizekKARLOVY VARY, Czech Republic (AFP) - "I do not agitate as part of any movement, but I can say that the Cuban people are suffering and that the sooner a transition will come, the sooner they will be free," said the 50-year-old actor, who came to the west Czech spa town with his daughter, Daniella, for the European premiere of his film, "Lost City."
"We hope that there will be a peaceful transition, not a bloodbath, but the sooner that things change the better," the actor-director said.
Garcia emigrated from Cuba with his parents in the 1960s, the first years after Fidel Castro's overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista and the era when "Lost City" is set.
Shot in the Dominican Republic and based on a novel by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the film tells the story of a night club manager who flees his country when Castro's regime seized power.
For Garcia, "Lost City" is not a political manifesto but "a homage to Cuban music and culture" which surrounded him during his childhood, until he left the country aged five, and has "accompanied him throughout his life."
The actor who played in "The Untouchables," "Godfather III" and "Ocean's Eleven" explained during a news conference that it took him "16 years to achieve his dream" of making the film -- which he produced, directed and composed and played the music.
"I consider this film the work of my life," he said on Friday after receiving the festival's Crystal Globe award during the opening ceremony.
"During the Cuban revolution, there was a slogan which said 'do not retreat even one step,' and it is due to that that I am here this evening," he said, clearly moved.
Former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, an outspoken critic of Castro's regime, was also present at the opening ceremony.
Garcia said that working with great directors, such as Francis Ford Coppola, had helped him direct the stars in his first film, who include Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray and Ines Sastre.
©AFP