Admirers of 1993's multiple award-winning Strawberry And Chocolate ­ in international terms, the most successful film in Cuban cinema history ­ will be pleased to see that co-director Juan Carlos Tabío's latest outing largely reprises the cast of the earlier film. Tabío's name has been linked with most of the major Cuban movies of recent years; on Strawberry... and Guantanamera, he co-helmed with the late, great Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Lista De Espera (Waiting List), however, like 1984's Se Permuta, 1988's Plaff and 1995's Elephant And The Bicycle, finds him out on his own.

Co-producer Gerardo Herrero claims that the new film is similar to Guantanamera. Shot in Havana and its outskirts during August and September of last year on a budget of $1.7m, it is based on a 1995 story by Colombian writer Arturo Arango, who co-wrote the script with Tabío, along with the experienced Senel Paz ­ another Strawberry... vet ­ who came in for the final draft. "The story has a basis of humour," explains Tabío, "which is maintained in the film, and which I use to talk about some universal themes."

It tells the story of a young engineer named Emilio (Vladimir Cruz, who played the sensitive idealist David in Strawberry...). When we first meet him, Emilio is waiting at a bus station sometime in 1993. Waiting alongside him are the beautiful Jacqueline (Thaimi Alvariño), who is travelling to meet her Spanish fiancé, and a nameless blind man (Jorge Perugorría, who played Diego in Strawberry... and who has since been semi-ubiquitous in Spanish cinema, notably in Bigas Luna's 1999 feature Volavérunt).

Bus after bus passes. All are full. When the Havana bus arrives, Emilio reluctantly says goodbye to Jacqueline, with whom he has been flirting. The bus then breaks down, and while most of the passengers leave, Emilio proposes that a group of them stay behind to repair it. From here on, the film becomes a tender-hearted, feel-good look at people finding the best of themselves, rich in characters and characterisation and with some sweetly moody lensing from Hans Burmann, Alejandro Amenábar's lenser of choice. And the metaphor ­ people preferring to stay behind and make the best of what they have, rather than leaving ­ is clearly a comment on recent Cuban history.

"Tabío has a great capacity for risk," says leading man Cruz, referring to the director's creatively uncontrolled shooting methods. "This is the first time I've felt like I'm not filming a script but actually creating the film as it's being made."

Jonathan Holland