Cuban boxers have always punched above their weight in the world arena: the little island has clocked up no fewer than 63 Olympic medals - 32 of them gold - in the last 40 years. Enjoying extraordinary access to the mysteries of the Havana Boxing Academy, this emotional documentary follows the fortunes of three ten-year-old lads over eight months as they submit to a punishing regimen of training for the National Boxing Championship. But, as with the best sports films, Sons of Cuba is about more than winning or losing. It's about more, even, than boxing itself.
The day starts at 4am for Havana's pint-sized pugilists. Roused from their bunk beds, they pile into the training ground to do press-ups by lamplight. They often go hungry in the never-ending struggle to control their weight, but keep their spirits up with rousing nationalist chants. "Fatherland or death!" they shout in unison as they jog round the courtyard. "Defeat cannot be justified."
Patriotism is just one motive. For these kids, sports glory offers a ticket - perhaps their only ticket - out of a life of poverty. Ballet is another, as it was for Carlos Acosta (or the Brazilian ghetto kids profiled in another excellent recent documentary, Only When I Dance). Junior, one of the three boys on whom Sons of Cuba focuses, was in fact formerly studying ballet. The other two are the slightly chubby Santos, who is always sneaking off to the baker's for illicit empanados (savoury pastries), and Cristian (pictured right), the most talented boxer and an old soul troubled by an Oedipal rivalry with his father, an ex-boxing champ.
The film's climax takes place at Cuba's National Boxing Championship, at which Havana hopes to wrest back the precious trophy from its arch-rival, the provincial town of Matanzas. After all the months of work and privations, only a handful of boys will qualify to compete. The intense reactions, of both the students and the trainers, as the list of contenders is announced are very moving to watch.
But much of the real drama unfolds away from the boxing ring. Near the beginning of the film, we learn of Fidel Castro's illness and withdrawal from power in July 2006, as well as the defection to the US of three of the country's top boxers and Olympic gold medalists. Sons of Cuba is an intimate portrait of a country still wedded to its historic revolutionary ideals (as seen in this inspirational parade, with mini-Fidel, pictured below) but also caught up, if not exactly in crisis then certainly in seismic transition.
The British director, Andrew Lang, whose first feature this is, secured permits to shoot by passing off the film as a Cuban production under the gung-ho title Champions of the Future. He has stitched the authorities up royally. From the opening sequence - a montage of dark, deserted, rather desolate streets, as the spectral voice of the Commandante is heard on the soundtrack exhorting the importance of sport - no opportunity is lost to depict Cuba as wracked by extreme poverty, its people as desperate and the boys as virtually brainwashed by propaganda.
This may be true in part (though I personally had a much more positive impression on a work trip to Havana around that period). But it gives the film a hectoring tone that's unworthy of the material. Still, the story is told with great technical polish and what most viewers will take away are impressions of these inspiring boys, their expressive faces full of hope, determination and uncertainty, and the tantalising glimpses of a culture about to change beyond recognition forever.
Patriotism is just one motive. For these kids, sports glory offers a ticket - perhaps their only ticket - out of a life of poverty. Ballet is another, as it was for Carlos Acosta (or the Brazilian ghetto kids profiled in another excellent recent documentary, Only When I Dance). Junior, one of the three boys on whom Sons of Cuba focuses, was in fact formerly studying ballet. The other two are the slightly chubby Santos, who is always sneaking off to the baker's for illicit empanados (savoury pastries), and Cristian (pictured right), the most talented boxer and an old soul troubled by an Oedipal rivalry with his father, an ex-boxing champ.The film's climax takes place at Cuba's National Boxing Championship, at which Havana hopes to wrest back the precious trophy from its arch-rival, the provincial town of Matanzas. After all the months of work and privations, only a handful of boys will qualify to compete. The intense reactions, of both the students and the trainers, as the list of contenders is announced are very moving to watch.
But much of the real drama unfolds away from the boxing ring. Near the beginning of the film, we learn of Fidel Castro's illness and withdrawal from power in July 2006, as well as the defection to the US of three of the country's top boxers and Olympic gold medalists. Sons of Cuba is an intimate portrait of a country still wedded to its historic revolutionary ideals (as seen in this inspirational parade, with mini-Fidel, pictured below) but also caught up, if not exactly in crisis then certainly in seismic transition.
The British director, Andrew Lang, whose first feature this is, secured permits to shoot by passing off the film as a Cuban production under the gung-ho title Champions of the Future. He has stitched the authorities up royally. From the opening sequence - a montage of dark, deserted, rather desolate streets, as the spectral voice of the Commandante is heard on the soundtrack exhorting the importance of sport - no opportunity is lost to depict Cuba as wracked by extreme poverty, its people as desperate and the boys as virtually brainwashed by propaganda. This may be true in part (though I personally had a much more positive impression on a work trip to Havana around that period). But it gives the film a hectoring tone that's unworthy of the material. Still, the story is told with great technical polish and what most viewers will take away are impressions of these inspiring boys, their expressive faces full of hope, determination and uncertainty, and the tantalising glimpses of a culture about to change beyond recognition forever.
- Sons of Cuba opens tomorrow.
- Official website. with details of the film's UK tour.
- Find Only When I Dance on Amazon.
- Watch the trailer below.
