Viva

Viva (2015) is an Irish-Cuban drama directed by Paddy Breathnach — watch online on iFILM. In Havana, a young hairdresser named Jesús does makeup for a drag troupe at the local club and wants nothing more than to perform on that stage himself.

His first night goes wrong when his estranged father Ángel — a former boxer he hasn't seen in fifteen years — walks out of the crowd and hits him. Ángel doesn't understand what his son does and doesn't know how to ask. Héctor Medina plays Jesús; Jorge Perugorría, the star of Strawberry and Chocolate, brings a bruised, taciturn weight to Ángel.

Breathnach shoots on real Havana locations — the noise, the colour, the smallness of the rooms. What builds between father and son isn't reconciliation exactly. More like the first honest conversation. Stream Viva (2015) online on iFILM.