Award-winning VIVA hits Irish cinemas today
Viva, Paddy Breathnach's story of discovery set against the back drop of a Cuban drag scene, is released in Irish cinemas today. Directed by Breathnach (I Went Down) and written by Mark O'Halloran (Adam and Paul), Viva was the first Irish film to be shortlisted in the category of Foreign Language at the Academy Awards®.
Viva stars Héctor Medina as Jesus, a hairdresser for a troupe of drag performers in Havana, who dreams of being a performer. Encouraged by his mentor, Mama (Luis Alberto García), Jesus finally gets his chance to take the stage. But when his estranged father Angel (Jorge Perugorría) abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down. As father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, Viva becomes a love story as the men struggle to understand one another and reconcile as a family. Set in contemporary Cuba, Viva is a tender love story of a father and a son struggling to escape from opposing expectations, duty and the burden of past sins.
Having premiered at Telluride in 2015, Viva went on to screen at Busan and Sundance. The film won the publicly-voted AUDI-ence award at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival 2016 and was also the winner of the Best Irish Film prize at the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards. Cathal Watters picked up the IFTA for Best Director of Photography for his work on Viva.
Viva was produced by Rebecca O'Flanagan, Rob Walpole and Cathleen Dore and was supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
What the critics have said:
A beautiful, funny drama filmed in Havana that surges with rough humanity. A triumph.
- Irish Times
Vivid and fresh
- The Guardian
A perfect film and a testament to the portability, not to mention the universality, of talent.
- The Wall Street Journal
Exhilarating hybrid of Social Realism and feel-good aspirational entertainment.
- New York Times