Review: Los Frikis (2024)
In 1980s Cuba, punk rockers seek survival in the most anti-intuitive way: deliberately injecting themselves with HIV
Los Frikis (2024)
Written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
Here are the facts: The Soviet Union, having collapsed, stopped propping up the economy of Cuba, its client state, in 1990. Cuba’s leader, Fidel Castro, declared that Cuba was entering a “special period” during which sacrifices would be required of the populace. Plainly put, this meant they would starve, since the country’s agriculture was organized to bring in trade dollars and not to feed its people. These conditions led to another wave of illegal migration to the U.S. and, consequently, a wave of deaths as desperate people packed inadequate boats and rafts to make the 90-mile voyage to Florida. Of those who remained, the average Cuban lost 20 pounds, according to Wikipedia.1
At the same time, disaffected artists and musicians chafed against the regime’s insistence on conformity to socialist ideals and its ban on rock music. Some of these punks, who imitated the styles of British and American punks, were known as Los Frikis, “the freaks.” To escape the dilemma of starvation, some of them intentionally injected themselves with HIV, because another of those socialist ideals was a high standard of health care for all citizens. HIV+ Cubans were sent to live in remote camps where they received three meals a day, all the ice cream they could eat, and good health care. True story.
According to “Los Frikis,” the 2024 feature film written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, the youths figured they would survive long enough for a cure for AIDS to be discovered. The film depicts the quarantine camps not as desolate or regimented, but as free zones in rural areas where the queers and drug users — and those who intentionally injected themselves with HIV+ blood — no longer had to conform. While they remained relatively healthy, they lived their best lives. The film shows some Frikis forming rock bands, and queer residents freely marrying each other. While Act I depicts the dilemma they had to escape, Act II depicts an idyll where they could be themselves.
Unfortunately, Act III of a movie about people with a fatal disease is sad. But to give the more strait-laced among the audience someone to identify with, the main character is a younger brother of one of the punks who, like the young woman whose husband has already died, is straight and falsified his health documents to join his brother in the camp.
To their credit, the filmmakers don’t spend too large a share of the movie’s time on this heterosexual romance. By the time it’s consummated late in Act II, the audience has already wept with happiness at the beautiful wedding of two of the queer residents.
I heard an interview with one of the directors in which he praised the cast, most of them non-actors, for their commitment to the film’s requirements. To realistically portray starving musicians and men dying of AIDS, they had to starve themselves. According to the director, the cast’s own solidarity mirrored the solidarity of the community of outcasts they portray.
Viewers will see this honesty and commitment. The film has authenticity and dignity, humor and pathos.
The photo at top is a posed picture of the cast. Below is a photo, from https://underground-england.com/los-frikis-a-sad-tale-from-the-cuban-punk-subculture-movement/, of the real Cubans whose stories inspired the film:
Thanks for putting this on my radar. Eager to see it.
Sounds interesting. Just added it to my que.