Best movies like Return to Ithaca

A ship company employee, Jay Williams, is sent to Florida where one of the company cruise ships is stuck on a reef off of the coast. He obtains waivers from all of the passengers with the exception of Nan Spencer, a department store salesgirl who wants her vacation NOW, not later. Jay is instructed to take Nan to Havana and set her up in the best hotel and keep her entertained. She visits a night club where the star attraction is Rosita Rivas, and meets Rosita's worthless manager, Monte Blanca, who makes a play for her. Trouble also comes in the form of Jay's fiancée, Terry McCracken, when a romance develops between Nan and Jay.

In the 1830s a Florida slave trader captures the wife of Chief Osceola, setting off a war between the Seminoles and the U.S. Army.

In Havana, Raul dreams of escaping to Miami. Accused of assault, he appeals to Elio to help him reach the forbidden world 90 miles across the ocean. One night, full of hope, they face the biggest challenge of their lives.

Carla, a young postal worker in Havana, spends her days postmarking thousands of letters and dreaming of the day when she can be reunited with her parents, who moved to Miami when she was fifteen. To fulfill her longing for intimacy, she opens random letters and rewrites them into lyrical prose, believing she is helping her fellow Cubans understand one another better. Beautifully filmed in black and white accented by brilliant colours, Nada+ has a stunning visual composition. With its delightful mix of visual humour, theatrical characters, satire and a lighthearted love story, it has a distinctly Cuban flair.

Expatriate Englishman Jim Wormold lives in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter. Owning a poorly-performing business, he accepts an offer from the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn't got a clue where to start, so he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provide fictional tales for his masters in London, and is soon known as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere. However, it all unravels when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his 'network' and he learns that he's the target of a group out to kill him.

The story of one night in the lives of a group of young Native American men and women who have left their reservations and are now living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles.

A businessman gets caught up in an assassination plot when he travels to Cuba.

A stunning descent into the tunnels, sewage pipes and subway stations of Madrid.

The story of seven people: their lives and love affairs in Madrid during the Civil War.

An aspiring young writer tracks a literary titan suffering from writers block to his refuge in rural Italy and learns about life and love from the irascible genius and his daughters.

An American insurance adjuster, stranded in Havana, becomes involved with an archaeologist and a collector of antiquities in a hunt for treasure in the Mexican ruins of Zapoteca.

The brash, opinionated owner of a nightclub manages to drive everybody crazy on a boat trip to Havana.

Allan Jones stars as hotshot baseball player Johnny Norton, in Havana for spring training. It turns out that Johnny has a beautiful singing voice, but only when he's suffering from a cold. Enterprising nightclub manager Barney Crane (William Frawley) attempts to inflict poor Johnny with cold germs, resulting in unchecked zaniness whenever our hero recovers sufficiently to lose his voice. The film's 63-minute running time manages to accommodate the drunken comedy relief of Hugh O'Connell and Jack Norton, and an abundance of musical numbers, courtesy of Allan Jones, Jane Frazee, the Horton Dancing Group, the Jivin' Jacks and Jills and Grace & Nicco.

Ricardo, a young law student in his home town of Madrid, is a carefree playboy who loves nightclubs and courting pretty girls. His father hopes to instill a more serious attitude in his son by transferring him to a school in the rural town of Santiago. At Santiago, his father's old friend is to be his guardian. When Ricardo arrives at Santiago he joins a fraternity, and continues his carefree lifestyle while serenading and courting his guardian's daughter, Carmina.

A Yank comes to Havana in search of an old friend who disappeared during the Cuban Revolution, and discovers a group of Batista sympathizers plotting to overturn Castro.

Kate Hardie plays a shy 19-year-old bookworm setting out on a world trip, only to be stranded at Málaga after her companion goes off with a local lothario. When her belongings are stolen, Ellie starts learning independence.

Two golddiggers go fishing for millionaires in Havana.

A cold hearted American hit man goes to Europe for "one last score". His encounter with a beautiful young woman casts self doubt on his lifeblood, and influences him to resist carrying out the contract.

While working as a hotel busboy, aspiring bandleader Carlos Estrada tries to persuade singer Lolita Valdez to join him in a rhumba contest in Havana.

This documentary follows 76-year-old nomadic musician Miguel Del Morales during his travels throughout Cuba, Guantanamo and Trinidad. Amid his journey, he meets up with some long-lost friends and makes brand-new ones. This engaging film was shot with just one hand-held camera and was a Director's Fortnight feature at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. French filmmaker Karim Dridi directs and co-writes.

Mike, a Hemingway-esque adventure novelist, is spending his days in a self-imposed exile somewhere in Central America. A reporter for Sight Magazine, Katie, has tracked him down in the hope of getting the biggest scoop of her career. Mike falls for Katie. On a flight to Mexico City, their plane crashes near a remote hideaway of Nazi war criminals in hiding. The Nazis want to stay hidden and plan to dispose of their new guests

In Ancient Egypt, during the monotheistic regime of Akhenaten, Akhesa is a beautiful princess, 14 years of age. An impetuous young girl, Akhesa rebels against her father's dictats. She refuses to live confined in the royal palace and wants to discover why her mother, Queen Nefertiti, has been exiled on the island of Elephantine. Assisted by her half-brother prince Tutankhaten, or "Tut", Akhesa flees the court in hopes of finding her mother. In defiance of danger the two teenagers travel down the Nile to the burning-hot desert dunes, courageously facing the mercenary Zannanza and priests of Amun Ra, who are conspiring to overthrow the pharaoh because of his rejection of their god. With innocence their only weapon, Akhesa and Tut overcome many hardships, and encounter an extraordinary destiny.

Drowning under the abuses of her narcissist ex husband and condescending Lotto-Gold superior, a young single mother on the brink of a mental breakdown is sent to the middle of nowhere to interview a strange hermit.

A prostitute sees a friendly sailor as a way out of Havana's grimy underworld.

While in Havana, a musician gets involved with a crippled man and his beautiful wife... with deadly results.

Abruptly abandoned by her husband in a country completely foreign to her, Colombian native Mariana (Paola Mendoza) struggles to take care of herself and her two young children on the unforgiving streets of New York City. Sebastian Villada, Laura Montana and Anthony Chisholm also star in this gritty independent drama jointly written and directed by Mendoza and her collaborator Gloria La Morte.

American Harvest is set in the heartland of Kansas. Two proud, stubborn families have not spoken to one another because of an incident in the distant past. Wayne Rogers, the patriarch of one of the families, is in danger of losing his wheat farm. He knows that his land will be saved if he patches things up with rival farmer Earl Holliman, but such a reconciliation is out of the question.

Pablo is in love with Dominique, whom he wants to marry. The girl leads them to a cemetery, where she convinces Pablo that should either of them die, the other will return and help them prepare for the afterlife. She leaves Madrid on a vacation in Bretagna, and dies en route. Pablo receives a call the next day. It is Dominique.

Yousry Nasrallah's powerful adaptation of Lebanese writer Elias Khoury's epic novel of fifty years of Palestinian dispossession, exile, and resistance. The film follows the flight of Younes, his wife Nahila, and those around them, from their village in northern Palestine to a refugee camp in Lebanon. Some vow to continue the struggle, most simply struggle to survive. Unsparingly detailing the impact of the nakba (disaster) on Palestinian life and society and the refugees' often-contentious relationship with their reluctant Lebanese hosts, Gate of the Sun spans generations, mixing personal stories with historical events.

Against the fascinating backdrop of an ever marvellous Havana, Vittorio Arditi De Bellis, an aging Italian orchestra conductor once celebrated for specialising in Rossini's compositions, has fallen on hard times. However, some remember he delivered some of the best renditions of the Rossini-Kyrie, and he soon finds himself reluctantly on the way to Havana, Cuba, to conduct the Children's Cuban National Choir. Starting on the wrong foot he quickly finds himself on the verge of losing everything. Rossini's Cuban style and the choir's children are also protagonists in this heart-warming and nostalgic tale of living, loving, growing old and being unexpectedly surprised when he meets the Son he never knew he fathered years ago - Vittorio's past adds new purpose to his present, allowing an otherwise quirky old man to feel his passion and taste the 'spice of life' once again.

Leonardo, a ballet dancer, and Sara, an ambitious lawyer, are young black Cubans desperate to leave their country. They realize that their ticket off the island is for Leonardo to seduce one of the foreign students at the salsa school where he teaches. Dreams collide when they meet a lonely Iranian-Canadian woman who is seeking adventure and passion in paradise.

A story about a simple man from the mountains, Guaguasi, who falls in love with a beautiful chorus girl, Marina, during the Cuban Revolution. Guaguasi joins the rebels and arrives in Havana at the end of Batista's dictatorship, and, in the midst of political turmoil, is swept off his feet by the mesmerising Marina. The story celebrates the vitality and lunacy of the Revolution period with surrealism, humor and sensuality and is a compassionate metaphor about the human condition.

Traveling to Havana, Cuba, to investigate the origins of a mysterious manuscript supposedly written by acclaimed American novelist, Ernest Hemingway, three friends are thrust into a terrifying game of cat and mouse when they find themselves trapped inside an abandoned building nestled in the center of the country's vibrant capital. With time running out fast the threesome must maneuver through a maze of deadly traps to find a way out of the building before they're hunted down.

Ozzy Taylor, a charismatic high school teen, discovers he can't control his intrusive thoughts of suicide, setting off a life-changing shift in his destiny.