With Fidel Castro ailing in seclusion these days, many wonder where he has gone. The answer: Miami. Well at least in the film “I Love Miami.”

The tragicomedy, “I Love Miami” shows what might happen if Castro incidentally ended up in Miami, a city inhabited by many Cuban immigrants.

Without the power that has surrounded him for over 40 years, Castro is forced to face those who fled Cuba to escape his rule.

But because of a disfigurement that he sustained during his voyage to Miami, no one is able to recognize him and all welcome him warmly.

The film will make its Dallas debut tonight at 6 p.m. in O’Donnell Recital Hall in the Meadows School of the Arts. Audience members will be greeted by a conga player from Havana NRG.

A question and answer session with the director will follow the screening.

“I Love Miami” director Alejandro Gonzales Padilla has directed music videos for Latin music stars such as Shakira and Maná.

When he began work on his first film, he decided he wanted to portray the Cuban American community of Miami where, in the past four decades, more than 250,000 Cubans have come for refuge.

Instead of sticking to the politics of the Cuban-American community, though, Padilla decided to show the different side of the Cuban-American community and also give a humble side to Castro.

Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernandez, supervised the script writing process. As his illegimate daughter, she fled Cuba over a decade ago for Spain but later found herself in Miami.

Goya award winner for Best Actor, Juan Luis Galiardo plays Castro while up-and-coming Jaime Camil plays Alberto, a Cuban American plotting to overthrow Castro’s government.

“Legend of Zorro” child actor Adrian Alonso is also part of the cast.

The film, which has played at film festivals internationally, will also run Saturday at noon during the Ninth Annual VISTAS Film Festival at the Angelika Theatre in Mockingbird Station.

J.Frank Hernandez, VISTAS Film Festival executive director, says the film would not have been part of the festival if it weren’t for Fernando Salazar, coordinator of Hispanic Student Services at SMU, and Cristina Uranga, 2004 SMU alumna.

The two worked together to bring the film to SMU as a Hispanic Heritage Month event and later presented it to Hernandez, who thought it was a wonderful opportunity for VISTAS and SMU to continue their relationship.

Salazar and Hernandez have been working together for the past four years, screening films at SMU that would later run in the festival.