ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Andy Garcia says a longing for his native Cuba is the guiding force behind his next movie, which will be filmed in the Dominican Republic starting next week.

Garcia, 48, was born in Havana but left Cuba with his family when he was 5 for Miami Beach, Fla. Garcia's family left after Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959, and Garcia has been a critic of Castro's communist government.

"The Lost City" will focus on the transition from the rule of dictator Fulgencio Batista to Castro's takeover. Garcia's character, a cabaret owner, eventually leaves the country to go into exile in New York.

Novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a Cuban exile who is also a critic of Castro, wrote the script for the movie, which Garcia also will direct.

"I told Guillermo my dream of making a movie about this time period, about the Cuba that I left very young but that I have a lot of nostalgia and obsession about," Garcia told The Associated Press in a recent interview.