A punk band purposefully infects themselves with HIV to hopefully live a life outside the law in the powerful Los Frikis trailer
Most people can’t conceive of the hardships and strife inflicted on others. It’s not entirely their fault. Television places onlookers behind a screen while horrors lurk outside their door, and news outlets are questionable these days at best. What I’m trying to say is oppression is omnipresent, and Los Frikis, the latest film from The Peanut Butter Falcon directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, is ready to throw audiences into a mosh pit of drama for a story about breaking the chains that bind us. What? You don’t believe me? Watch today’s emotionally charged trailer for Los Frikis and then decide.
Inspired by true events, Los Frikis is a coming-of-age story set in early 90s Cuba, where a group of punk rockers in search of freedom deliberately inject HIV to live at a government-run treatment home so they can create their own utopia. Produced by Oscar winners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Sony’s Spider-Verse films), Los Frikis opens in New York and Los Angeles theaters on December 20, with an expansion set for December 25.
The original score is by Academy Award winner Steven Price (Gravity), and the cinematography is by Santiago Gonzalez (Beyonce: Black is King). Los Frikis features music by The Rolling Stones and Nirvana, who get name-dropped in today’s trailer. The movie stars Adrià Arjona (Hit Man) and some of Cuba’s best actors. It premiered at the Miami Film Festival, where it won the grand prize, and it has gone on to win top awards at Nantucket, SCAD Savannah, Mallorca, and others.
“Set against the backdrop of 1990s Cuba, Los Frikis tells the raw, unforgettable story of brotherhood, sacrifice and the search for freedom. Inspired by true events, the film follows Gustavo, who idolizes his older brother Paco and his punk bandmates – the “Frikis.” As oppression and extreme poverty tighten their grip, the Frikis take a desperate and defiant stand, intentionally injecting themselves with HIV to gain refuge in government-run sanatoriums. There, in a world meant for isolation, they carve out their own anarchic utopia—an oasis of rock ‘n’ roll, joy and freedom, where the spirit of resistance thrives, and Gustavo will risk everything to be reunited with those he loves. Los Frikis is a powerful coming-of-age tale about the price of freedom and the lengths we go to find it.”
In the Los Frikis trailer, two friends contemplate the greatness of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and Nirvana’s fallen grunge icon Kurt Cobain. As the trailer continues, we witness hardships thrust upon the Cuban people as they navigate the law, poverty, and subjugation. “It’s impossible to survive without breaking the law,” Paco (Héctor Medina) says in the trailer, reinforcing the dire circumstances of his people. To change their lives, a group of punk rockers infects themselves with HIV, forcing them into a shared living situation where they can live by their own rules. Their self-inflicted semi-quarantine leads to all manner of revelations in life and love as they navigate a world that wants nothing to do with them.
What do you think about the Los Frikis trailer? Who’s more iconic: Mick Jagger or Kurt Cobain? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
