When the Oscar nominations were announced earlier this year, one of the biggest surprises was the inclusion of Javier Bardem in the list for Best Actor. Few people had heard of him and even fewer had seen this film but now it's finally hitting Britsih Screens on a limited release.

STARRING: Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Michael Wincott

WHAT HAPPENS: 'Before Night Falls' is a true story based on the life of Cuban writer and poet Reinaldo Arenas. Starting with his early years in poverty as the son of peasant farmers, where he learns of his special gift with words by carving poetry into trees. Through to his joining with Castro's rebels, in a time of change and optimism in Cuba and developing his skills as a writer and poet, to much acclaim. Until he's betrayed through persecution at the hands of the revolution, he fought for, due to his creativity and sexuality marking him out as a dissident. Leading him to a life of being hunted and imprisonment, surviving by writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. Will any of this finally lead to freedom to live his life the way he wants and write what he wants?

ANY GOOD?: When the film works, it really is captivating and this happens particularly when the haunting score resonates over the fascinating camera work or the lucid pictures are accompanied by Arenas' moving poetry, spoken in its original Spanish. It looks absolutely stunning, as director Julian Schnabel has tried to capture Arenas' hallucinatory writing through vivid images of the Cuban landscape and succeeded. Bardem is a minor sensation as the writer who faces extreme discrimination due to his talent and his sexuality, his performance is understated, emotional and poignant, surely he is the next big foreign talent to move into mainstream movies. However 'Before Night Falls', is in no way a perfect movie and the narrative lacks coherency due poor sound and little in the way of introduction to characters. It was quite easy to get lost and loose the thread of the plot or who exactly anyone is, which unfortunately makes the film somewhat disjointed and you can never fully immerse yourself in it.

BEST BIT: The visuals are startling and dreamlike throughout, but the Hot Air Balloon sequence over Cuba is particularly arresting.

INTERESTING FACT: As you may have notice, too huge Hollywood stars, Johnny Depp and Sean Penn, appear in the film though you may not recognise them. Penn is seen early on as a craggy peasant and Depp has two parts, one as a Prison interrogator and another as the Prison transvestite.

LIKED IT, TRY: Shawshank Redemption, Papillon or Schindlers List