For decades, few films made in Cuba have found their way to U.S. theaters. But with diplomatic relations restored between the two countries, this past weekend brought not one, but two. Papa: Hemingway in Cuba, the first Hollywood film to shoot on the island nation in decades, turns out to be a dispiriting, ineptly directed affair, about which the less said, the better.
But a father-son drama called Viva is lively enough to be an art-house hit, illuminating a Havana subculture that may be almost as unfamiliar to Cubans as to Americans.
It centers on Jesus (Héctor Medina) a delicately handsome young man who makes his living — a very small living — as a hairdresser for the performers at a transgender club. The day we meet him, a cat-fight among the drag performers, leads to a departure, a theft of wigs, and an opportunity for Jesus, who’s been hankering for a spot in the spotlight.
The club’s proprietor, a burly drag queen known as Mama (Luis Alberto Garcia) wonders why, and Jesus responds that he needs the money, but also that he’s at loose ends — mother dead, dad in jail — and that he wants something for himself.
So Mama lets him try out — his stage name, Viva — lip-syncing to a torch song he likes, in a dress he made himself. He’s a little tentative, but not terrible.