Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice.

Music and romantic desire unite them, but their journey brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.

Fernando Trueba is multi-award-winning writer, director and producer, with a career spanning more than three decades in film, television, documentaries, theatre and music. Belle Epoque, starring Penelope Cruz, won both the Oscar and BAFTA for Foreign Language Film. Trueba's Latin jazz documentary Calle 54 saw the birth of his collaboration and friendship with Javier Mariscal. In the concert film Blanco Y Negro he brought together Cuban-born musician Bebo Valdes and Spanish flamenco star Diego "El Cigala", winning the Latin Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music video. His documentary filmed in Brazil, El Milagro De Candeal, won two Goya awards. El Ano de Las Luces, won a Goya as well as the Silver Bear in the Berlin Film Festival; The Mad Monkey (1989) also won five Goyas. Trueba's last film El Baile De La Victoria (The Dancer and the Thief) was Spain's submission to the 2010 Academy Awards, and received 10 Goya nominations. Trueba's published works include his dictionary of Cinema. He began his career as the film critic of leading Spanish newspaper El Pais. // Javier Mariscal is an artist and designer, working in multiple fields including illustration, graphics, comic books, paintings, animation, interiors, product design, furniture and web design. In 1979, he created the Bar Cel Ona (bar, sky, wave) logo for his adoptive city of Barcelona, a powerful and accessible piece of graphic communication that won him instant acclaim. His popularity increased when his merchandise-friendly Cobi was chosen as the mascot of the 1992 barcelona Olympics. Twipsy, chosen as the mascot of the Hanvoer 2000 Expo, became the star of his own animated TV series. The Valencian-born designer opened Estudio Mariscal in barcelona in 1989, winning multiple commissions across a range of disciplines, and exploding to a full-time team of 40. Javier Mariscal was the subject of a major retrospective at London's Design Museum in 2009. An exhibition of his work, Mariscal A La Pedrera, opened in September 2010 at Pedera – one of Gaudi's most famous buildings – in Barcelona.