Before Night Falls (2000) on Netflix
Reinaldo Arenas grows up in Oriente Province, Cuba, and moves to Havana in the 1960s, where he writes and begins to acknowledge his homosexuality. He finds friends among openly gay men.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.1/1027,453 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes74%
Trailer
Plot summary
Reinaldo Arenas is born in Oriente Province, Cuba, in 1943; his mother and her parents raise him, and the family later settles in Holguín. In the 1960s he moves to Havana to continue his studies, and in 1964 he takes a job at the National Library while he works at his writing. He begins to explore his ambitions and his sexuality. A mention in a writing contest gives him the chance to publish a first work, and friendships with men such as Pepe Malas and Tomas Diego help him find himself. As a teenager he fought for the Castro-led revolutionary forces, and he has shown an aptitude for writing since childhood. The political climate in Cuba grows increasingly dangerous.
Cast
- Batan Silvaas Reinaldo's Father (as Sebastián Silva)
Show all 20 cast
- Cy Schnabelas Smallest School Child (as Cy)
- Olmo Schnabelas Smallest School Child
- Vito Schnabelas Teenage Reinaldo (as Vito Maria Schnabel)
- Aquiles Benitesas Translator
- Ewa Piaskowskaas Pretty Blonde Student
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Before Night Falls (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Javier Bardem became the first Spanish actor ever nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, for playing the exiled Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas.
- To prepare for playing Reinaldo Arenas, Javier Bardem spent six weeks in New York with the writer's real best friend, Lazaro Gomez Carriles, studying two hours a day exactly how Arenas walked and talked.
- The film's depiction of gay persecution in Cuba draws on real law: homosexuality was formally criminalized there in 1938, and starting in 1965 gay men and transgender women were rounded up into labor camps called UMAP for being 'anti-social'.
