Los Frikis (2024)

[BluBonnet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPpZaE_HlKY

Phil Lord and Chris Miller dive into Cuba's 'desperate and defiant' punk history in Los Frikis trailer

When it comes to adapting important historical events for film and television, Latin American history and culture often gets short shrift.

Spider-Verse duo Chris Miller and Phil Lord want to change that with Los Frikis, a film executive produced by the duo that tells a powerful coming-of-age story centering around two brothers, Gustavo (Eros de la Puente) and Paco (Héctor Medina), and their punk bandmates in 1991.

Los Frikis is based on and inspired by true events of a group of Cuban punk rockers from the late ’80s and ’90s, who embraced punk rock and English-speaking music, both of which were banned and dubbed "the enemy's music" by the government. They were viewed as the weird ones, the "freaks," and rather than run from it, they called themselves "los frikis."

As oppression and extreme poverty took over Cuba in 1991, the brothers and other Frikis took "a desperate and defiant stand," by intentionally injecting themselves with HIV to be sent to a government-run sanatorium where, far from Castro's hands, they carve out their own utopia.

Lord, who is Cuban-American, said in a statement that he feels it's important to tell Latino stories that would "likely be lost if they aren't able to find ways to be told through wider audiences."

"It’s been important to myself and Chris to help tell these Latino stories under our Lord Miller banner," Lord said. "The generosity and collaborative spirit of our whole cast, along with insight from additional Cuban writers, directors, artists, and friends across the Cuban diaspora helped create a beautiful film that truly comes from the heart of Cuba, but is meant for the entire world."

The film costars Adria Arjona (Hit Man, Andor), who also serves as executive producer on the film. Los Frikis is "the most important movie" she's made, Arjona said in a statement. She "was so taken aback that I had never heard about this story; it uncovered a part of Latin American history I didn’t know existed," she said, adding that "many of the actors had never left Cuba before this project, and seeing life through their eyes is the biggest gift filmmaking has ever given me."