A group of middle-aged Cuban friends gather one night on a terrace in Havana to welcome back old compadre Amadeo - once an up-and-coming writer who fled the country and who is now supposedly on a short visit from Spain - to reconnect and swap stories of times gone by. Noted French filmmaker, Laurent Cantet (The Class), collaborating with critically revered Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura, has produced a mesmerising and emotionally affecting comedy drama. Reminiscent of both Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill and perhaps more pertinently John Sayles' The Return of the Secacus Seven, Cantet's film is a bravura depiction of a reunion that moves from recollection to recrimination, revelation to reconciliation. Laced with a sharp political subtext that underpins the characters' fond and bitter memories, Return to Ithaca is a powerful cinematic insight into Cuba's past and present.