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Shooting a feature film in Cuba comes with a unique set of challenges that make the usual logistical hurdles of filmmaking seem like nothing. Still, those who have had the opportunity to shoot in the socialist country say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. As the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba comes to an end, film production in the country is expected to ramp up.

While Hollywood studio productions like “Fast 8” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” claimed to be “making history” earlier this year by being the first American films to shoot in Havana in half a century, two American directors had already shot independent films in Cuba on the heels of the relaxed travel restrictions by the United States government: Bob Yari’s “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” and Ben Chace’s “Sin Alas” (“Without Wings”).

Read More: ‘Sin Alas’ – First American Film Shot in Cuba...

With President Obama and our government not only loosening restrictions on travel to and from Cuba but the president himself making a trip down to the island nation, Cuba is on the verge of going from a rarely seen locale to a burgeoning home for culture that it has always truly been. And thankfully, film isn’t avoiding this.

This week marks the debut of the latest film from director Ben Chace, and while it is itself simply a superb, dream-like motion picture, it’s also a much needed view into the beauty and rich history of this nation.

Entitled Sin Alas, Chace looks to multiple generations of Cuba, surveying its past, present and possibly future through a story of lost love. Sin Alas introduces us to Luis Vargas, a Cuban writer who lives day to day trying to keep his family afloat in a struggling Cuban economy. While much of the film is set during this current day period, we see glimpses of his past, from his time in Hershey, Cuba where his father worked for a certain candy company to the central narrative involving a famous dancer Isabella Munoz, who Vargas loved and ultimately lost. Upon hearing Isabella had died, Vargas goes on a journey to find out just what happened, only to encounter a series of memories that both deepen the narrative itself while also introducing us to the history of Cuba in the broadest sense.

Based loosely on the Jorge Luis Borge story The Zahir, this is a supremely entertaining and supremely important piece of work. The conceit itself isn’t all that remarkable, as this type of narrative structure itself could be arguably considered a cliche. The joy of this film isn’t in watching as Chace weaves a time-twisting narrative. It’s in the specifics of the said narrative. Marked by a breathtaking score from Aruan Ortiz, this is as much a journey into the history of Cuban culture as it is a specific narrative about a specific character and his specific life experiences. Far more interested in cloaking the central narrative within a much broader cultural landscape, this film thrives when it embraces the culture surrounding the narrative. From location shooting at places like The Palermo Bar and The Hotel Astor, Chace’s picture oozes the energy of Cuba from first frame to last.

It’s also simply a gorgeous piece of filmmaking. Again, a deeply energetic picture, Sin Alas is a lushly composed drama that takes the 16mm photography shot by Listen Up, Philip Dp Sean Price Williams and uses it to evoke the sun soaked, hedonistic feel of Cuba, a nation that’s as important artistically on a global level as it is specifically oppressed by its government. A superb sensory experience, the film has a subtitle of “A Cuban Love Story,” and while that may seem maudlin, there are few things as perfectly stated as that. The narrative sounds like a typical love story, but in its specifics and its aesthetics this film is a decidedly Cuban story woven with a love and admiration for everything that makes Cuba the sensual nation that it is.

With performances that are, across the board, great (I’m partial to Yulisleyvis Rodrigues’ sexy turn as Isabela but Carlos Padron’s lead is also remarkable), Sin Alas is not just the first American film shot in Cuba since 1959. It’s also one of this year’s great surprises, a film that will hopefully find a following as it makes its way on the arthouse scene.

"Sin Alas," from director Ben Chace is a a Cuban love story as recollected by a retired journalist, about his relationship with a celebrated ballerina, who has now died. When 70-year-old retired journalist Luis Vargas reads that celebrated ballerina Isabela Muñoz has died, his thoughts return to his brief, passionate, yet impossible relationship with her. It's a love story with great music and lots of local color, that comes timed almost perfectly with the normalization of relations between the USA and Cuba. Filmed on 16mm, "Sin Alas" (which means "Without Wings" in English) is inspired by Jose Luis Borges's short story "The...

A man is haunted by a woman, and a melody. He is a writer, and she is the ballerina he fell in love with 40 years ago after he saw her dance to a particular tune that, nearly half a century later, is wafting back into his mind by way of a dream. In writer/director Ben Chace's arresting "Sin Alas," we find the aging author Luis Vargas (Carlos Padrón) in Havana, Cuba, opening his newspaper to learn that the ballerina haunting his brain, Isabela Munoz (Yulisleyvís Rodrigues), has died. The news startles him into revisiting his buried past, and the bourgeois life he shed to pursue political revolution as a young man. Part mystery, part ghost tale, this seductive film draws inspiration less from film than from postmodern literature, specifically from the freely flowing writings of Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine midcentury author of slippery tales including the stories in "Ficciones" and "Labyrinths.

Ben Chace's La Film Festival entry is the first American-directed narrative feature to be shot in Cuba since 1959. Below, Toh! reveals an exclusive first poster. Part mystery, part ghost tale, "Sin Alas" finds a Borgesian writer named Luis Vargas in Cuba, in Centro Havana, in love with the revolution — and an elusive, young ballerina who's married to a prominent military leader. The entanglement spins everyone's lives out of control. 50 years later, Luis reads of her death in a newspaper, which startles him into revisiting the buried emotions of his youth. Premiering in Laff's world fiction competition section, "Sin Alas" is written and directed by Chace and shot in 16mm by Sean Price Williams, one of the hottest indie cinematographers around ("Heaven Knows What," and the films of Alex Ross Perry). "Sin Alas" debuts at Laff on June 11 and is currently seeking Us distribution. You can watch the trailer here.

Top brass at the 21st Los Angeles Film Festival have announced the Us Fiction, Documentary and World Competition sections.

Seventy-four films in total will screen at the event, scheduled to run from June 10-18, while 54 play in competition including 39 world premieres.

Organisers pointed out that nearly 40% of the directors in the six competitive categories are female and nearly 30% of the films are directed by people of colour.

New sections this year are the Us Fiction and World Fiction Competitions and Launch, as well as the previously announced Buzz, Nightfall and Zeitgeist programmes.

The Launch section is designed to showcase innovative storytelling crafted in digital media including music videos, web series, podcasts, interactive games and digital activism shorts.

Selections include Making Cool Sh*t: The Music Videos Of Ok Go followed by a talk with frontman and director Damian Kulash and Funny Or Die’s Make ‘Em Laff Showcase.

Among the Us Fiction Competition entries are world premieres...