Executive-produced by Alex Gibney, the documentary shares the remarkable story of Elian Gonzalez, the 5-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. After his mother and others perished at sea, the custody battle between Gonzalez's Cuban father and Miami-based relatives sparked a flash point for simmering post-Cold War U.S. and Cuban tensions.... (Full plot summary below)
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Executive-produced by Alex Gibney, the documentary shares the remarkable story of Elian Gonzalez, the 5-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits on Thanksgiving Day in 1999. After his mother and others perished at sea, the custody battle between Gonzalez's Cuban father and Miami-based relatives sparked a flash point for simmering post-Cold War U.S. and Cuban tensions.
Leave your thoughts about Elián.
| The Film StageJohn FinkMcDonnell and Golden’s Elián is a sweeping, definitive look at the saga, engaging and entertaining even if it contradicts what it sets out to do. |
| Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleDirectors Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell, with the help of narrator Raul Esparza, do justice to all sides. |
| Screen InternationalFionnuala Halligan&t does effectively plunge the viewer back in those choppy seas for an object lesson in how politics can rapidly inflame a situation to dangerous levels, even when both countries had agreed the best place for him was Cuba. |
| The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck[A] comprehensive documentary adding context and a modern-day update to the tale. |
| Slant MagazineEd GonzalezIt has the decency to recognize that only Elián González has the right to define his sense of truth for himself. |
| Village VoiceRen JenderThe film assumes a familiarity with the story most won't have, leaving out crucial details. |
| Film Ireland MagazineNaomi SheaMost evocative are the interviews with Elián, now in his early twenties and living in Cuba, whose profound humility and collectedness belie the trauma and notoriety of his early childhood. |
| San Diego CityBeatGlenn Heath Jr.Captures the simmering tension of this historical moment. It meticulously weaves together talking head interviews and archival footage to provide contextual groundwork for a larger conversation about the complicated nature of Cuban/American relations. |
| User ReviewTim MPowerful Documentary! "Had the Elian event been handled better, we might not have had the Iraq war," - Joe Garcia, Former U.S. Congressman |
