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Cuban Actors Flee on Way to Tribeca Film Festival, Report Says

By Nicholas Rizzi | April 24, 2012 10:50am
Actors Javier Nunez and Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, both 20, disappeared in Miami on their way to the screening of their new movie, 'Una Noche', at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.
Actors Javier Nunez and Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, both 20, disappeared in Miami on their way to the screening of their new movie, 'Una Noche', at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.
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Trevor Forest and Shlomo Godder

MANHATTAN — Talk about art imitating life.

Two Cuban actors on their way to the Tribeca Film Festival for a screening of their new movie about teens defecting from Cuba to the United States mysteriously disappeared in Miami last week, the New York Post reported.

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Javier Nunez Florian, both 20, flew with "Una Noche" co-star Dariel Arrechada, also 20, from Cuba to Miami for a stopover on Wednesday, the Post said. 

The pair separated from Arrechada, saying they wanted to go shopping, and never showed up to board their next flight to New York.

"To be sincere, I think they’re going to stay [in the United States]," Arrechada told the Huffington Post.

The film's British-born director, Lucy Molloy, told the Post that she was "disappointed" by their disappearing act.

"I really was thinking that they were going to come here and enjoy the festival," Molloy, a New York University film school graduate, told the Post.

"They had all of their family there, and it’s surprising," she told the New York Post.

A spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection told the Post she could not comment on whether the on-the-lam actors sought asylum because of federal privacy laws. The two had visas that allowed them to stay for the duration of the festival, which ends Sunday.

Arrechada said he plans on going back to Cuba after the festival.

"I have my family there, my friends, my girlfriend," he told to the Huffington Post.

"Here, I don't know anyone. Here, I don't know the way of life. I also don't know English very well," he said in Spanish.

"Una Noche" tells the story of three Cuban teenagers who plan to flee Havana for Miami. Florian and De la Torre play Elio and Lila, siblings who help Raul, played by Arrechada, escape Cuba after he is accused of assault.

The film debuted on Thursday and a second screening is today at 3:45 p.m. at Clearview Cinemas on West 23rd Street.