Viva

Jesus is a hairdresser in Cuba's capital and he works with the performers of a drag venue run by Mama – an effervescent and passionate man who can hold an audience – but needs the right wig. Jesus also does his wigs but longs to don the dresses, make up wigs and sparkle on stage like the drag acts he sees perform.

Then one day his estranged father turns up. He is an ex boxer with a dark past, a smoking and drinking habit and attitudes that make him anything but receptive to his sons wishes – sparks are gonna fly.

Now this is from Irish director Paddy Breathnatch ('Shrooms') and was co funded by The Irish Film Board – written by Mark O'Halloran, who also has a small part here and brought us 'Garage' as well as appearing in a number of films including 'The Guard'. As such the collaboration or Irish and Cuban talent works very well.

One of the biggest criticisms has been the failure to put sub titles to the songs that are performed in the film. It is in Spanish so naturally is sub titled, but the songs are not. Paddy Breathnatch has said this was to ensure the audience concentrated on the performances and not just try to read the words etc. Well I could have managed both and I am sure a few others could too. That said I really enjoyed this film, it is a great script, a strong cast and enough drama to keep a drama queen happy. Plus you get some fabulous performances on stage too, so it is a film I can recommend.

This is a very strong movie with a poignant story and excellent acting. It's set in Havana, Cuba, where young Jesús lives alone in a dilapidated apartment, trying to survive by doing odd hairdressing for a local dragqueen-club, secretly craving to be on that stage himself. Then suddenly his long lost father returns home after having been in jail for some 20 years. The two collide, especially on the topic of Jesús being gay and performing as a drag queen, but nevertheless they have to find a way to deal with eachothers presence in their lives.

Describing this, it may seem like a melodrama, but director Paddy Breathnach (not a Cuban or even a Hispanic director but Irish, surprisingly the whole project appears to be Irish!) carefully avoids the potential pitfalls and gives us a fairly honest and almost matter-of-fact like account, greatly helped by an excellent script and effective editing. The setting in old Havana shows us not the touristic beauty of faded glory, but the sad and bleak reality of a town in total decay, where people either dream of getting away from, or - as Jesús and his father - resign and try to make the best of it.

The acting of both Jorge Perugorría (the father) and Héctor Medina (Jesús) is excellent, especially Medina is impressive, with only few words but with a world of expressions in his face and attitude. His transformation into Viva, the drag queen singer on stage is striking: from a gentle, taciturn androgynous boy to a larger than life dramatic diva, singing and crying her heart out. The songs that are performed on the stage by the way are breathtaking: totally over the top yet full of genuine grief and anger and drama, and the words mirror the story perfectly.

I am stunned at how an Irish production team is able to so get to the heart and soul of this Cuban story, but they sure did, I rank it a heartfelt 10.

Viva (2015) is an Irish film, set in Cuba, directed by Paddy Breathnach.

The film stars Héctor Medina as Jesus, a young gay man who is a professional hairdresser. He also works fixing the wigs of drag queens who perform at a local night club. Eventually, he performs in drag, and he turns out to be highly talented.

Jesus's mother is dead. His father killed a man, and has been in prison for 20 years. The plot begins when his father returns. Angel, played Jorge Perugorría, starts out as a unidimensional macho brute. However, director Breathnach is too talented to let him remain nothing more than a stereotype. An interesting relationship begins between father and son, and that's the real strength of the movie.

Well, that's one of the real strengths of the movie. The other strength is the music and the drag performances. These men are talented, and we don't just see little clips of their acts--the camera lingers on them, and their work draws you in.

We saw this movie in a special preview performance at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. The ImageOut LGBT Film Festival is one of the highlights of the year in Rochester, and ImageOut sponsored this special showing.

The director of ImageOut film selection, Michael Gamilla, told us that he saw this movie at a festival in Berlin, and begged the producer to let it be shown in Rochester. (It will be shown in the U.S., but only in limited release in larger cities.) Because the movie hasn't been released yet, a print was available, and Rochester got it. Good work by Michael; good luck for us.

This is a movie that will really work better on the large screen, because the drag performances will be diminished--literally and figuratively--on the small screen. If you live in New York, Chicago, Miami, or San Francisco, you may get a chance to see it in a theater. If not, try to get it on the small screen. You'll still enjoy it.

While the film is Ireland's official Oscar submission due to director Paddy Breathnach's home country (and source of financing), 'Viva' is a film set entirely in Havana, Cuba, and serves as a window into the unique world of Cuban drag performers at a local nightclub.

Our protagonist, Jesus (Héctor Medina), barely survives off meager wages and temporary work, but dreams of being a drag star like his mentor Mama (Luis Alberto García). His road to local stardom starts out extremely well as he has plenty of potential, but hits a major hurdle when his father, a convict, comes home unexpectedly from prison. As a former boxer, it isn't surprising to hear that his father does not care for his son's chosen career path (or his sexuality). The resulting drama is about being true to yourself and following your passions while keeping relationships in your life.

Every character is so distinctly different from the others, and this colorful group gives 'Viva' the necessary stakes to be fully invested in, and truly sell, the movie. Jesus's father, Angel (Jorge Perugorría), starts out as a one-dimensional brute, but it quickly becomes clear he is much more than that. The machismo culture that is present in this world in direct contrast to its flamboyant opposition in drag queens is a compelling world to occupy.

While the film meanders at times, it thankfully finds enough of a storyline to finish extremely strong and leave the audience emotionally moved. Each of the drag performances is spellbinding thanks to a fantastic soundtrack and outstanding emotional vulnerability from the various entertainers. These performances will be the film's calling card and what makes it so memorable. As a father-son drama, and as an introduction into a world foreign to many of us (especially here in the U.S., where Cuba just recently opened its doors to tourism), 'Viva' is a success all around. The title stems from the protagonist's stage name, which is a perfect message for a movie about living life the way you want to against all odds, and stepping out of your comfort zone in pursuit of success.

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In the 1970s, when I lived in Old San Juan (Puerto Rico), there was a black, round transvestite known as Lorena, who performed at the club "Cabaret," where he was a sensation for a couple of months with his hyper-dramatic interpretations of songs like Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". He knelt on the stage, prayed, pleaded, even wept a bit, never losing his sense of humor, nor hiding the effect of detachment which, in general, good transvestite shows produce. Then, about three decades later, living in La Habana, I realized that the local homosexual subculture survived in a bubble, with patterns of social behavior (ranging from partying to couple interaction) that referred me to times gone by, as a recycling of the 1950s at the close of the 20th century. These manifestations, as well as the bitchiness in relations, have, of course, not died on or off the island, and they persist along with the "urbanity" of the "gay" community (more selective and classist), but I found they were almost the rule in Cuba. These two memories combined in my head, when the Irish film "Viva" ended and Héctor Medina as Jesus, the hairdresser who chooses to be a transvestite, became a kind of La Lupe, crying, imploring, pulling curtains from the cabaret managed by Mama (Luis Alberto García), in a highly current story, if we only consider the homophobia that reigns in almost all contemporary societies and that is at the center of the movie. At the same time, in the script by Mark O'Halloran, the same man who wrote the remarkable "Garage" (2007), I perceived a certain "poofy fascination" with an old and decadent universe that cries out for renewal. If O'Halloran achieved a well-measured drama in the Irish countryside in "Garage," I think that in other people's territory he emphasized the exotic and lost in realism. Despite the attempt to truthfully show misery and the alternatives of a young man who, in the absence of the stage of a transvestite club, opts for prostitution, "Viva" is a syrupy portrait of the streets of Cuba (that "inner Havana," opposed to the better-off life of the privileged people of the island) and its dens (as opposed to the big, fancy cabarets with larger budgets). One can overlook the filmmakers' ecstasy with the old- fashioned spectacles of transvestites (by interpreters-actors who have always lived a marginal existence and suffered severe exploitation), but where "Viva" loses more effectiveness is in its melodramatic approach to the relationship between Jesus and his father (Jorge Perugorría), who suddenly breaks into the boy's life and opposes his purpose. There is enough material to incite tears and emotion, as in the best melodramas, with music that exaggerates the pain we already perceive in the good performances by Medina, Perugorría, García, Laura Alemán and Paula Alí. For that drama beyond moderation, "Viva" is enjoyed, but I suppose there must be followers of film aesthetics according to Bruce La Bruce, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé and Gustavo Vinagre, who would have been grateful for something a bit more graphic in the approach to eroticism and violence that permeate "Viva".