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Watch This: Sons of Cuba


A League of Strangers creative breakfast with producer Laura Giles inspired this month's viewing recommendation...

By: Clare Howdle,   1 minute

Sons of Cuba, Andrew Lang (2009)

Heartbreaking, harrowing and somehow hopeful, Sons of Cuba follows three young boys at the Havana Boxing Academy as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives so far: Cuba’s National Boxing Championship for Under 12’s. Their intensive and dramatic training and schooling over eight months happens to a backdrop of immense change that leaves the Cuba at a crossroads and the boys contemplating their place in a fast evolving world.

Laura Giles explains what it was about the film that drew her to it and why thinking about it today makes her proud: “I first saw Sons of Cuba when it was at advanced rough cut stage and connected emotionally with the boys’ individual struggles. I am by no means a sports fan, but for me this was a bigger human story in a unique socio-political context that had not been seen before. Nowadays being a producer of marketing & distribution is a proper job title, but that’s essentially what I did on this film (with producing partner Francine Heywood and Andrew Lang, the director) – helping raise additional finance to complete the film and then working through the best strategy to connect it to its audience. It was really brilliant to see people’s reactions at festivals and Q&As, and especially gratifying to win the Youth Jury Award at Sheffield, as well as to take the film back to Cuba for its contributors to see themselves on the big screen for the first time.”

Watch Sons of Cuba now on Amazon Prime

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