Havana, May 16 (Prensa Latina) The film version of the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez's celebrated novel 'Love in the Time of Cholera' has attracted large audiences in the Cuban capital.

The much-awaited film had its first screening Thursday in the cinema halls of Havana.

'Love in the Time of Cholera' (El amor en los tiempos del colera) was filmed in 2007, mainly in the city of Cartagenas de Indias in Columbia, under the direction of Mike Newell and the main role performed by Javier Bardem.

Colombian singer-song writer Shakira was invited to participate in the sound track of the film for which she wrote two songs, in which she worked together with Argentine musician Pedro Aznar with the songs titled 'Hay amores' and 'Despedida'.

The film is about the story of Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) who waited 51 years, nine months and four days to confess his love to Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno).

The setting of this story is at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, in the times of civil wars in that country. A Cholera epidemic is also present in the cities along the coast.