Héctor Medina, star of the movie “The geeks“Do you assume the Cuban spirit is punk rock.
Released at Christmas 2024 and now accessible on streaming companies, “Los Frikis” tells the story of two brothers who’re secretly unleashed in Nirvana as they attempt to survive on the island “Special period” within the 90s. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Cuba financial system went, having counting on the assist of the USSR. The deficiency and rationing that observe made the lifetime of daily extraordinarily tough on the island.
“Los Frikis” makes us fall in the course of this shortage.
The movie is all intercourse, rock ‘n’ roll and rebel, even when it offers with heavy issues. It takes inspiration from the true story of Hundreds of Cubans esteemed who deliberately injected with HIV to entry the sanitors financed by the federal government, the place there have been meals and even ice cream. The result’s a devastating however compelling work of the historic drama.
Eros de la Puente will probably be launched in “The Geeks”.
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Medina performs Paco, a singer protagonist Mohawked with a wild strip. To create his character, the Cuban actor remembers how Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, who’ve co-directed and co-registered the movie, continued to inform him: “I need a wolf, I need a wolf, I need a wild wolf”. And that is precisely what he has delivered, along with moments of tenderness.
In an preliminary scene, earlier than anybody who goes to the sanatorium, Paco kills a stray cat, so he, his bandmates and his little brother can eat. While the youngest brother Gustavo, the actor Eros de la Puente reveals each starvation and coronary heart whereas anguish for the loss of life of a feline.
“There is a way of maturity that the younger Cubans have that it’s a part of the expansion in Cuba, as a result of it’s virtually like a jungle,” mentioned De La Puente on a zoom name, including that he needed to return to a second in his life to revisit that youthful innocence. “You must discover ways to survive and easy methods to do issues for your self. And Gustavo does probably not have that function.”
“Los Frikis” turns into wilder solely after the meal for cats-if not destroying Gustavo’s innocence, then actually testing it in methods nicely past the everyday story of maturity. Paco doesn’t develop as a lot because it exists as a drive of nature.
Adria Arjona, who not too long ago starred at nighttime thriller of Zoë Kravitz “Blink Twice” (2024), in addition to the romantic comedy “Hit Man” (2023), completes the forged as a love curiosity for one of many brothers.
Giving life to Cuban historical past with understanding and compelling characters, “Los Frikis” dramatizes how tough it was to outlive in Cuba within the 90s – which is a vital service, based on De La Puente. “People don’t know what to occur in Cuba,” he mentioned. “The Cubans virtually get up to search out meals for that day, and it is a very unhappy way of life.”
Medina, who was born in 1989, agrees. “The fact is that at this second it’s worse than (the 90s,” he says. In 2024, hurricanesadopted by earthquakesHe injured the already aged infrastructure of the island. Rations and deficiencies have elevated. Blackouts are common.
This political actuality makes historical past notably well timed. Now based mostly in Miami, Medina affectionately remembers the actual punk of the 90s, sharing the time when her uncle took him to a “particular place” that performed solely the rock ‘n’ roll and the place the members of the counterculture gathered.
“They have been good individuals, solely a number of, individuals who have been in search of freedom,” says Medina earlier than telling when, as an adolescent, he had the chance to fulfill the alleged final, true Friki – Gerson govern – Whoever injected themselves with HIV at that second and continues to be alive. “I keep in mind the Mohawk, the black garments, the piercings, many tattoos. He handed me a cigar and spoke to me. And I do not forget that he was so protected with all of the younger individuals in that place. He was like a household.”
That sense of camaraderie prolonged to the manufacturing of “Los Frikis”, the place a number of crew members confirmed off Mohawk to mix the protagonist, in solidarity with the group it represents.
Héctor Medina performs a rebel rocker in “Lo Frikis”.
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Production additionally favored intercultural studying in different surprising methods.
“I’m studying in my nation by means of Mark and Tyler, who’re two American boys – is so humorous,” says De La Puente, now based mostly in Los Angeles, who didn’t know of this side of the historical past of his nation earlier than studying the script. “I had no thought,” he provides. “The second I learn it, I used to be uncertain and I used to be the man,” it can’t be utterly true. “So I crashed and went to my grandmother’s home and in my father’s home, and I began asking them questions.
The movie will definitely start extra conversations on what pushed the punk on the island of those size within the 90s – if individuals see it. The movie obtained a theatrical launch restricted final Christmas day, with screenings in Los Angeles and New York. Now it’s Available for streaming In first movies, YouTube, Apple TV and extra.
When her hopes are requested for in Medina for the general public to see her movie, it clarifies as she desires to encourage them to behave in her life.
“I need individuals to consider freedom. Think of what individuals (are) in a position to do for freedom,” he mentioned. “We have to consider the rock spirit ‘n’ roll … we should not be underneath management.”
