HOME AGAIN ANDY GARCIA RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS WITH THE VERY PERSONAL `LOST CITY'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Andy Garcia's office is actually his family's first Valley home, situated on a quiet neighborhood street in Sherman Oaks.

Nearly every wall of the house is blanketed with one-sheet posters from Garcia's movies and framed photos of family members, Cuban musicians and golf partners. A collection of conga drums dominates the office area, a precarious stack of cigar boxes teeters on Garcia's desk, and out back is the detached garage where Garcia's long-gestating, finally-here dream movie, ``The Lost City,'' was edited. Inside, behind the bar and on the floor (notably, not the wall), you'll find a framed ``Lost City'' poster with a photo of Garcia and a cast list that includes Robert Duvall and Isabella Rossellini.

The poster dates back a good dozen years, to when Garcia nearly made the movie with Samuel Goldwyn Films. Then the financing crashed and the project languished. It was never close to getting off the ground until the summer of 2004, when the cameras finally rolled - without Duvall or Rossellini.

``The Lost City,'' opening Friday, is an intensely romantic, melancholic look at Garcia's native Cuba, beginning in the late '50s pre-revolutionary days and continuing through the aftermath of Fidel Castro's takeover. The movie holds Castro, fellow revolutionary Che Guevara and dictator Fulgencio Batista in equal contempt, lamenting the culture and way of life that were lost during that tumultuous time. The late Cuban writer G. Cabrera Infante delivered the first screenplay draft in 1990. Garcia, who directs and stars in the picture, tried to make the movie from that day forward.

Over strong coffee and cigars (A-Fuente Gran Reservas - Dominican, not Cuban), Garcia, who turned 50 last week, spoke about his long cinematic quest, his Cuban upbringing and the disappointment he feels every time he sees someone sporting a Che Guevara T-shirt.

Q: Your movie is obviously deeply felt. Watching it, you get the feeling that you've been thinking about it for these 16 years.

A: I've been thinking about it, and so has everybody else in the cast. (Laughs) Over the years, when we'd see each other, they'd ask, ``So, what's going on with the movie?'' And I'd say, ``Well, there's some rumblings it might get going this summer.'' And I'm sure when I turned my back to get some coffee, my friends would say, ``Oh, my God. Poor Andy.''

Q: Did you ever figure the window of opportunity had closed?

A: ``The Lost City'' was going to get made. It was just a question of when. That's the way I looked at it. And if I couldn't be one of the sons because I was too old, I'd play the father.

It didn't matter. It was going to happen.

Q: Why did it take so long?

A: People always seemed to marginalize the movie, thinking that it would only be seen by a small group of people - Hispanics or, more specifically, Cuban-Americans. I don't believe that. We showed it six times last year at the Telluride Film Festival because of the demand. And there were no Hispanics there, much less Cubans.

Q: You and your family left Cuba when you were 5 1/2. What are your strongest memories of the country?

A: I think I realized as a young boy that we might not be coming back and that crystallized all my memories and enhanced them and protected them so they wouldn't go away. So I have a lot of vivid memories. And on top of that, I have continued to create memories.

When I listen to a piece of music or read a book, I'm there through my imagination. And I get lost in that world. It's very intense.

Q: In a sense then, you've lived in Cuba all your life.

A: Absolutely. The music has always kept Cuba alive for me.

It's where I find solace. It's where my character in the movie finds comfort in exile. It's the one thing that never betrays him - his music, his culture. And for me, every time I put on a record, I'm back there.

Q: One of your actors, Julio Oscar Merchoso, who, like you, left Cuba at a young age, says, ``I hurt when I see people wearing Che Guevara T-shirts.'' How do you feel?

A: Well, it's disappointing. I'd be curious to go around and ask them how much they really know about Che. Some people wearing the T-shirt don't even know his name. It's rebellion. They know he's some sort of revolutionary, and to wear his image is cool because you feel like a revolutionary.

Q: I saw a Che window decal on an SUV on the drive over here.

A: Someone told me the other day that they asked one of these people if they were aware of all the executions that Che was a part of in Cuba and the guy said, ``Well, I don't know if that's true.'' As if it had been made up to discredit him. I wish you could say it was made up because that would mean that all those people didn't die under his thumb. That's the tragedy.

Q: What did you think of ``The Motorcycle Diaries''?

A: That's Che Guevara when he's 18 years old. You don't see the dark side, nor do they allude to it, and at the end of the film, they say he went off to become part of the Cuban revolution. They don't go into any details.

Q: And they don't really give you much of a hint that this kid even has it in him to be leading the firing squads.

A: I don't know what Che Guevara was like when he was 18. But I do know what he was like when he was 32. And you see that in ``The Lost City.''

Q: Has your film caught flak for its politics?

A: Yes, it has. There have been festivals that wouldn't show it. And that will continue to happen from people who don't want to see the image of Che be tarnished and from people who support the Castro regime. And he still has a lot of supporters out there.

Q: It's hard to imagine why. Totalitarianism, poverty, human rights violations ... the list goes on.

A: Some people think Castro is a savior, that he looks out for kids and the poor. It's a bunch of hogwash. In the 45 years since Castro has been in power, Cuba has been in the top three countries for human rights abuses for 43 of those years. People turn a blind eye to his atrocities.

Q: They see him as David thumbing his nose at Goliath.

A: Yes. He waves the fist of ``I'm fighting Yankee imperialism.'' Never mind that he didn't care about Soviet imperialism in the 1960s and '70s. It's a whole political game. It's hard to fathom that people would go down there to shake his hand, because he's got blood on his hands.

Q: Have you ever thought about going back?

A: Every day I think about going back.

Q: You could. People go to Cuba all the time from Canada or Mexico. It has become this sexy tourist destination because it's taboo.

A: Well, Cuba has always been sexy. (Laughs) It's sexy even in the state of decay it's in. But to go there is illegal. I would never go back under those conditions. Emotionally, I've never wanted to go back while Castro was there. I'll wait until he's dead and buried.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `LOST" & FOUND

Andy Garcia delves into his Cuban heritage with new film

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(2) Andy Garcia, who produced and directed ``The Lost City,'' also stars as night-club owner Fico Fellove, who is struggling to hold his family together in the mist of a revolution.

(3) ``The music has always kept Cuba alive for me. ...Every time I put on a record, I'm back there,'' says Garcia, left, on the set with trumpeter Alfredo Armenteros.

(4) William Marquez plays the artistic director at Havana's El Tropico nightspot. The film, 16 years in the making, is Garcia's way of recapturing his youth: he left Cuba at the age 5 1/2.

(5) Aurora Fellove (Ines Sastre) reflects on the impending changes the revolution will bring to her family and country.