Buena Vista Social Club: Adios

Many will have wondered what happened to the veteran Cuban musicians profiled in Wim Wenders's 1998 cult classic, Buena Vista Social Club, and Lucy Walker provides some of the answers in this genial if fitful documentary sequel. With Wenders exec producing, Walker is able to recycle footage of icons like Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Rubén González in their autumnal prime after they were "discovered" by American musician-producer Ry Cooder. Walker bids a particularly fond farewell to Ferrer, whose career is charted from his days as a backing vocalist to his last concert just four days before he died. But she also turns the spotlight on to Barbarito Torres ("the Jimi Hendrix of the laúd") and singer Omara Portuondo, who is still going strong in her mid-80s. Shifts in US-Cuban relations provides an intriguing backdrop to the nostalgia, and much time is devoted to a landmark visit to Barack Obama's White House. Yet, for all the joyous music, this record of an ending era is inevitably tinged with sadness.