Azúcar Amarga (Bitter Sugar) is a 1996 American-Dominican co-production directed by Cuban filmmaker Leon Ichaso.

Filmed in Santo Domingo, and starring a cast of Cuban-American émigrés,[1] it also uses archival footage from Cuba.

[2] Gustavo, a patriotic Cuban communist, catches the eye of an attractive girl, Yolanda, at a rock concert where his brother Bobby is performing.

Bobby complains to Gustavo that the police will not return his band’s equipment, preaching to him about the lack of freedom in Cuba.

Gustavo and Tomás visit Bobby in the detainment camp for people infected with AIDS.

Gustavo confronts Yolanda, who tells him Claudio has asked her to marry him, implying that she will accept for the financial security he can offer her.

Gustavo refuses, stating things are so bad in Cuba because everybody leaves instead of fixing the problem.

Text on screen informs the viewer that Yolanda and her family were intercepted by the United States Coast Guard, but were allowed to settle in America in August 1995.

The film ends with old home-video footage showing Yolanda and Gustavo enjoying each other's company on the beach.

[1] Kevin Thomas from the Los Angeles Times stated "No movie could be more anti-Castro", concluding "there's no question that some viewers will find Bitter Sugar one-sided, but it certainly succeeds on its own angry, up-front terms.

[5] Baumgarden called the film an "amalgam of true stories about life in modern-day Cuba"; the scene where Bobby and his band deliberately inject themselves with HIV in protest of the government is based on actual occurrences.

[1] Conservative magazine editor and sometime move reviewer John Podhoretz called the movie "the most anti-Communist work ever made.