Writer-director Kaveh Nabatian’s debut solo feature is a sensual and mystical love triangle tale of self-centered dreams, narcissistic agendas, sex, salsa and Santeria set among the immigrant communities of Montréal.

“Sin La Habana” (Without Havana) is compact and completely immersive, a film that takes us from the impoverished lives and hopes of escape among the accomplished working poor of lovely Old Havana to the limited opportunities and dreams-deferred of French Canadian Montréal.

Thanks to its classical dance subtext and superbly sympathetic performances, it passes before the eyes as a balletic elegy bathed in Santeria ritual and the human foibles that foil the best laid plans.

Leonardo (Yoneh Acosta) is a talented dancer, “the best in the company” in Havana, and damned irked that he didn’t get the lead in his ensemble’s “Romeo & Juliet.” When he’s told “Your lack of humility” and “lack of respect” kept him from the role by the arrogant company director, Leo may be on the money in his translation of that.

“You just want a Romeo who’s white like you,” (in Spanish, with English subtitles).

That gets him fired. And that gets in the way of “our dream,” girlfriend Sara (Evelyn Castroda O’Farrill) lectures him. Hustling salsa lessons and dance tours of the city to tourists won’t get them “out of here.” That’s the “dream.”

Sara is a lawyer, he’s a great dancer and they’re living in a hovel that loses its electricity every time it rains. She’s young and beautiful, and he’s runway gorgeous and accomplished, and Cuban racism and the general poverty of the country will never let them have the lives they feel they deserve.

Sara’s adamant about seducing and marrying a tourist, getting that visa and getting them out — first one and then the other — that way. And if Leo won’t do it, she will.

So he puts the moves on Canadian divorcee Nasim (Aki Yaghoubi). When she flies home to Montréal, Sara coaches Leo on how to email her, what to say that will close the deal.

Yes, that’s every bit as predatory as it sounds.

Leo’s secret edge in all of this is “luck,” something he figures he’s gathering every time he consults with his Santeria shaman. A few beheaded chickens, offered into a jungle river, and a gift of a crystal marble should send him to dance glory, a passport and the money to summon Sara to the capital of French Canada.

But Nasim isn’t just a mark here, someone to be played. She is a Jewish-Iranian immigrant to Canada who fled an abusive marriage over the objections of her “traditional” father. She’s 40ish, her sister has a baby. Nasim is trying her “luck” with a long shot, too.

Nabatian brilliantly bites off just enough of each city to get across its flavor, contrasting the vibrance and sensual pleasures of socialist/impoverished Havana with the chill and haughtiness of classist Montréal, where immigrant communities import their aspirations and their prejudices — racism included — with them.

The story enfolds traditional-jobs-immigrants-take (meat processing, service sector) as they struggle to find a way practice what they’ve trained to do and expect to be able to do in a Land of Opportunity.

Leo rehearses and auditions and puzzles with First World dance ensemble expectations — “improvise.” Nasim is an artist, working in stained glass, house-sitting for a friend and getting handouts from her family to get by.

Every character we meet is looking out for Number One, and nobody is living their dream. Even that’s a common trope of immigrant narratives, lending the entire film a hint of “we’ve seen this before.”

But Nabatian gets an engrossing, involving story out of these familiar themes with artistic interludes via dance, surrealistic flourishes as Santeria flashbacks and en pointe performances.

Rating: unrated, sex

Cast: Yoneh Acosta, Aki Yaghoubi and Evelyn Castroda O’Farrill

Credits: Scripted and directed by Kaveh Nabatian. A Breaking Glass release.

Running time: 1:34