His impulse to write poetry arises in a world that has no room for it, no real need. The rest of the film follows his attempts to find a place where his passion can flourish. He has to fight for his words, and he almost dies for them. By the late 1960s, the Castro government was coming down hard on artists and homosexuals, which made Arenas a double target. From there on out, authorities endlessly harassed him and, finally, railroaded Arenas into prison after the author was falsely accused of sexual molestation.
Time does, however, run out for the artist.
The New York scenes are partially based on the recollections of co-screenwriter Carriles, who was a close friend of Arenas'. The sadness of these sequences compounds the beauty of Arenas' poetry. It took guts for Schnabel to bring this politically charged movie to the screen, and three cheers to Fine Line Features for getting it into theaters. Oscar nominations are surely in the offing. There's full nudity, bad language, violence, and non-camouflaged gay sex.