(out 15 March 10, Cert. PG) Cristian "The Old Man" Martinez, Santos "The Singer" Urguelles, Junior "The Dalmation" Menendez, Yosvani Bonachea, directed by Andrew Lang, 2009, cert. PG, in Spanish with English subtitles
MonkeyScore: 76%
What It's About: Despite being a poverty stricken, isolated island of 11 million, Cuba
is the world superpower of amateur boxing. In the past 40 years it has
won a staggering 63 Olympic medals in the sport, 32 of them gold. But
little was known about how these results were achieved until Andrew
Lang and his team became the first film crew ever to be given access to
the Havana Boxing Academy. Here, a hand picked group of 10-year old
boys rise at 4am, six days a week to begin an excruciating routine of
boxing training. Chanting "Victory is our duty! Fatherland or death!"
as they shadow box in the dead of night, these are the boys Fidel
Castro has called "the standard bearers of the Revolution."
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What MovieMonkeys Thought: With the backdrop of a fifty-year old Socialist Revolution, producer / director Andrew Lang gained unparalleled access into the world of Cuba's most successful boxing academy. The lead cast are three young boys whose dreams of becoming boxing champions are entangled in a weave of personal and socio-political motivations, for at a mere 10 years of age these young Cubans live and breathe the Revolution, becoming genuinely distressed when they hear of Fidel Castro flailing health. This is both puzzling and very touching to the untrained Western eyes as notions of national pride take on a much more sinister shade this side of the Atlantic. Following the boys through their gruelling training Lang's camera is able to shine light on one of the world's most closed-knit societies. It succeeds at showing that for all its economic deficiencies Cuba's socialist model is a compelling aspiration: even the defection to the US of boxing heroes does not dampen the youngsters sense of duty. Sons of Cuba is a tremendous insight into what the Socialist Revolution means today to the young generation, and just how powerful a drive this societal and political ideal still is. Powerful stuff. |
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