A film documents how else Ry Cooder, long-time friend of Wenders, brought together legendary Cuban musicians to record the Video of the equivalent title, & to perform the concert in the USA. Although geographically close, travel between Cuba and the United states is restricted due to the political tension between them countries, and so several of the creative person were travelling there first. A film shows their responses to this own household budget, also when including footage of the resultant sell-out concert. It likewise includes poignant interviews by using both of the independent performing artist.

It manufactured the musicians, a few of the two already in their xc, known to a globe-wide audience, & occasionally went in to release popular solo albums; these involved Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Rubén González and Elíades Ochoa.

A film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.

There exists besides an album by the same name, which features studio versions of the music heard in the movie.