Between 1960 and 1962 more than 14,000 cuban children were sent alone by their parents to the USA. This clandestine operation -with the participation of the CIA and the Catholic Church- became known as "Operation Peter Pan". Many of the parents had expected to follow their children, who had been granted visa waivers by the US government, but the Missile Crisis terminated the flights between the two countries and the children found themselves stranded in the USA. In 2009, for the first time a group of the Peter Pan children, now adults visited Cuba to give "closure and make peace with the land where they were born".
Direction
Bravo lets survivors speak, never sensationalizes
Writing
Reunion scenes need zero narration to wreck you
Director
Estela Bravo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Estela Bravo spent decades documenting Cuban-American trauma; this was her final film on the subject.
The 'Peter Pans' became a political football—Cuban exiles celebrated them, the Cuban government called them propaganda victims, and the kids themselves got erased from both narratives.
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