Two Cuban actors who went missing to seek US asylum

NEW YORK – Two Cuban cast members of an award-winning film who disappeared en route to New York for a film festival have emerged from hiding and said they will apply for asylum in the United States.

“In Cuba we were talking about it, to stay,” actor Javier Nunez Florian told the Miami-based Spanish-language channel America TeVe in an interview that aired late Friday, appearing alongside actress Anailin de la Rua.

On a stopover in Miami on their flight from Havana to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival, the pair, both aged 20, slipped away from their traveling companions and fled to De la Rua’s uncle’s house in Miami.

Staying in America had been a “dream” of theirs, added Nunez Florian.

Immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen said the pair would apply for asylum in the United States.

Their movie “Una Noche,” (One Night) tells the story of three teenagers trying to make the dangerous ocean passage from Cuba to Florida in a homemade raft, a plot that that drew comparisons with the decision they later made.

A third actor in the film, however, traveled on to the renowned festival to receive an award for his role, which he had been set share with Nunez Florian.

“I’m happy for me, I’m happy for them,” Dariel Arrechada told AFP after getting the Best Actor award on Thursday.

The short film also scooped the Best New Director and Best Cinematography gongs from among six awards given out during the competition.

Since 1966, Cubans have been granted automatic residence if they make it to the United States from the communist-ruled island, and thousands attempt the voyage every year, often navigating shark-infested waters in rickety boats.