This fascinating behind the scenes insight into the Havana Boxing Academy is captured in Sons of Cuba a powerful, uplifting documentary that is released at cinemas on 19 March 2010.

Sons of Cuba

A film by Andrew Lang

"A gem of a picture" Empire

"Surefire crowd-pleaser is equal parts coming-of-age tale and sports drama, though its real gut punch comes from its matter-of-fact observations of the wider sociopolitical context." Variety

"A knockout debut. Entertaining and affecting. It has all the makings of an arthouse hit" Hollywood Reporter

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"

This fascinating behind the scenes insight into the Havana Boxing Academy is captured in Sons of Cuba a powerful, uplifting documentary that is released at cinemas on 19 March 2010.

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 so far: 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 at Los Angeles Latin American Film Festival 2009
Best Documentary at Rome Film Festival 2009
Youth Jury Award, Sheffield Doc Fest 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
Audience Award, London Latin American Film Festival, 2009
Running Time: 88 minutes Format: HD CAM with Dolby 5.1 mix