Mía Maestro to Star as Fidel Castro’s Real-Life Lover in Miguel Bardem’s “Alina of Cuba”

Mía Maestro has landed her next proyecto

The 47-year-old Argentine actress will star in Miguel Bardem’s Alina of Cuba.

Mia MaestroThe Imagen Award winner will portray Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite who as a passionate love affair with Fidel Castro. 

James Franco will play the late Cuban leader.

They join previously announced actress Ana Villafañe who is portraying Alina Fernandez aka Castro’s Daughter. The screenplay from Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro.

Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution.

Fernandez learned that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that “El Comandante” was her biological father. Alina grew to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave, and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. Ultimately, she defected to Spain in 1993, an event that drew headlines from every major news network around the world, before she made Miami her permanent home.

Rounding out the supporting cast are Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.

The film is being shot entirely on location in and around Cartagena and Bogota, with Colombia’s colonial Spanish architecture and design playing for Castro-era Havana, Cuba. Cameras roll on August 15.

Maestro recently wrapped the Apple+ anthology series Extrapolations, starring opposite Edward Norton, as well as the lead in Domenico De Feudis’ Italian feature Il Legame (aka The Binding) for Netflix, produced by Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino. Maestro recently starred in the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival premiere The Cow That Sang Into The Future. She is known for her roles in Carlos Saura’s Oscar-nominated feature Tango, Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, Julie Taymor’s Frida, as well as her recent role in FX’s hit series Mayans M.C