Andrew Lang - Sons Of Cuba

Hailed by critics, Andrew Lang's powerful and moving documentary Sons of Cuba is a stunning insight behind the scenes of Castro's Cuba into the lives of a group of young boys; amateur boxers training to become champions of their sport and heroes of their country. And now seconds out – after its critically acclaimed theatrical release, this powerful film is making its way to DVD.

Despite being a deprived, isolated island of 11 million people, 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 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”.

Sons of Cuba follows the stories of three young hopefuls through eight months of training as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives: Cuba’s national boxing championship for under 12s. But during the season, crisis strikes: Fidel Castro falls ill, and all of Cuba’s Olympic boxing champions defect to the USA, leaving the boys contemplating a future that is altogether different from the one they have been taught to believe in.

Laced with emotion, Sons of Cuba is at once intimate, personal and political. It goes deep into the heart and mind of modern Cuba, while documenting, from the inside, a country at a moment of historic change. Sons of Cuba will leave audiences riveted as they both sympathise with the boys’ plight and cheer them on to potential victory…



Awards:

* Best Documentary, Los Angeles Latin American Film Festival 2009
* Best Documentary, Rome Film Festival 2009
* Youth Jury Award, Sheffield Doc Fest 2009
* Audience Award, London Latin American Film Festival 2009
* Nominated for Best Documentary, British Independent Film Awards 2009
* Premio Coral Award for Best Film on Latin America by a non-Latin American, Havana 2009
* Best Documentary, Foundation of New Latin American Cinema 2009
* Included in Association of Cuban Film Critics’ list of top documentaries exhibited in Cuba in 2009
* Best Documentary at the Mostra de Cine Latinoamericana Catalunya 2010
* Audience Award, San Diego Latino Film Festival 2010
* Audience Award, Malaga Festival de Cine Espanol 2010
* Best Documentary at the Festival de Cine Pobre, Cuba 2010
* Audience Award, Latin American Film Festival, Utrecht, Netherlands 2010


Full site at http://www.sonsofcuba.com/



Special features:

- Miami's Cuban Boxers with Aaron Brown
- The Return to Havana: A film about the Cuban premiere
- Fabulous Picture show interview with Andrew Lang
- Rome Film Festival Interview with Andrew Lang
- Deleted Scenes
- Official Trailer

RELEASE DATE: 20th SEPTEMBER 2010