Sons Of Cuba

Documentary charting the progress of three young adolescents in a noted Cuban boxing academy, the Havana Club. A fine documentary, not overtly political but giving insight into not just one particular country's culture, but the universal practice of youthful sports stars, hopes, dreams, and hard work.
This film is shot and paced in a pretty standard manner, as is convention zeroing in one three particular boys in the run up to the National Championships. None of them have a particulalry ridiously entertaining arc or story to tell, but all are more or less engaging. We see the boys at home and at the academy, the director is though discrete in not poking his nose into some obvious very private moments that happen off camera. This can make it rather undramatic at times, but is immensely understandable and can give curious pathos to the simple reactions we are allowed to see (classic Greek tragedian trick). 'The Singer' is a funny little guy, 'The Dalmation' has some wonderful moments of tenderness but is clearly more fragile than we can understand. The star of this show is though 'The Old Man', whose relationship with his father makes for the finest parts of the documentary. Indeed, the father is one of the most fascinating characters we have come across. The champion on hard times, living on memories, is a cliche, but he invests it with a warmth, a stubborness, a relaisation but at once a lack of self-knowledge, and a ambiguos and odd relationship with his son that leads to a shatteringly good climax. Another interesting character is the coach, whose hugging of his bitter enemy at the end, along with his tenderness with the boys, shows a good character sometimes blown away by his own passion to win.
The depiction of Cuba is slanted slightly towards painting it as ridiculous, but didn't for us make it seem all that bad. Indeed, there is a great togetherness in the parades and idolastion of Castro, even of the antagonistic elements are uncomfortable. Does the academy push the kids too hard? At times, yes, but no more than any other practice which requires hard work does. The choice of boxing as subject rather loads the die on this one.
The director has been largely even-handed, though does stray into criticism occasionally. Despite this, he has created a powerful film with some deeply moving characters. Very good, indeed excellent.