Sons of Cuba

At the age of 28, Andrew Lang completed Sons of Cuba over a three-year production. The film received high praise for its even-handed depiction of contemporary Cuba. It also shows the uncertainty that followed in the wake of Castro’s retirement from public office; forming an indelible time capsule of 21st Century Cuban society. Although inspired by Latin American cinema, Lang’s use of the observational camera to show his subjects in their daily life deviated from the old-fashioned newsreel approach of his Cuban crew.

His film approached his subjects as individuals and collaborators, as displayed in the film’s interviews with the children, their family and the coach. This accounts for the special quality of Sons of Cuba. Despite being entirely in Spanish, the film remains an outsider’s view of Cuba, attentive to the universal nature of life in a country that has often suffered on account of large-scale misperception and ignorance.