Films and TV shows that feel like Ojalá by Silvio Rodríguez

A surreal, aching love-and-loss poem of longing and separation, where the singer wishes for impossible things to stand between him and the pain of absence.

1. Strawberry and Chocolate (1993): Havana-set story of tenderness and friendship across divides, with the same Cuban intellectual, poetic soul.
2. Buena Vista Social Club (1999): A loving portrait of Cuban musicians, their memories, and the island's romantic melancholy.
3. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004): Young Latin American idealism and wandering, with the dreamy, searching spirit of nueva canción.
4. Before Night Falls (2000): A Cuban poet's life of love, exile, and longing, rendered in lyrical, aching images.
5. Y Tu Mamá También (2001): Latin American youth, desire, and a bittersweet ending that lingers on loss.
6. Cinema Paradiso (1988): Nostalgia and a lost love remembered with tender, wistful ache.
7. Memories of Underdevelopment (1968): Classic Cuban film of introspective alienation and love in post-revolution Havana.
8. Love in the Time of Cholera (2007): Decades of yearning for one lost love, steeped in Latin American romantic poetry.