Aldo López-Gavilan and Ilmar Gavilan are brothers separated by six years in age and 90 miles of ocean, but united by family and music. Only politics can keep them apart. Older brother Ilmar immigrated to the U.S. while Aldo chose to stay in Havana. Both siblings have competed internationally, Aldo on piano and Ilmar on violin. Their reunions are precious times for the brothers.
Los Hermanos is a camera tag-along documentary whose directors (Marcia Jarmel, Ken Schneider) are the subjects’ unseen companions. The leisurely film follows Aldo and Ilmar through the elder brother’s rare visit in Havana and the younger brother’s one-year visa in the U.S. While in North America, the siblings visit Detroit’s Motown Museum and, surveying the blighted city surrounding it, agree that it’s worse in many ways than Havana’s crumbling neighborhoods.
They come from a musical family—they break into polyrhythms with forks and spoons as they eat dinner together. From age 7 they benefitted from a superb and demanding conservatory education. By the time they reached middle school, they were learning at the level of music majors in American colleges.
Los Hermanos is incidentally about many things, including everyday life in Cuba. Government stores are sparsely stocked, everyone has a ration book but no one goes hungry. Those with money can supplement their rations at outdoor produce markets. Aldo respects his father’s commitment to Fidel Castro’s ideals but feels distant from that revolutionary generation. For Ilmar, coming to America was like “arriving in a candy store” of opportunities in classical music and other pursuits. Aldo adds that Cubans face their deprivations with a sense of humor.
The politics of America’s fraught relations with Cuba is inescapable. Every U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower maintained a strict embargo on the island designed to cripple Castro’s experiment in Caribbean communism. The embargo failed, as Barack Obama acknowledged when he eased restrictions and established an embassy. And then, near film’s end, comes the whiny monotone of Donald Trump, reimposing many sanctions at a time when Adlo and Ilmar were ready to collaborate.
Los Hermanos will open May 14 on Virtual Cinema via theaters around the country. For playdates, visit the First Run Features website.
