It’s not unusual for two or more siblings in one family to emerge as classical musicians. In the case of Ilmar and Aldo López-Gavilán, it was almost inevitable. The sons of two concert instrumentalists in Cuba, both were regarded as child prodigies: Ilmar on violin, and Aldo—six years younger than Ilmar—on piano. The boys barely had time to know one another.
When Ilmar was 14, his music teachers decided he had outgrown what Cuba could offer by way of further mentorship and instruction. They arranged for him to travel to Russia, where he studied for a year. Ilmr later ended up in the U.S., where he has lived ever since. Meanwhile, Aldo developed into a dazzling virtuoso who plays both classical and jazz repertoire.
The two men have seen each other from time to time as visas permit, a thorny situation given the political football the U.S. and Cuban relations have been for 60 years. Los Hermanos is an often lovely documentary about what happened when Barack Obama took steps toward normalizing ties between the two countries. That loosening not only made it easier for the adult brothers and their families to visit each other’s nations; it also became possible for Ilmar and Aldo to perform together in public without applying for an absurd number of official permissions.
Filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider follow a pair of family visits, one in New York and the other in Haana. We get to know each fellow in part through contrasts in their personalities: Ilmar is expansive, optimistic, and slightly larger-than-life; Aldo is skeptical, funny, and, as a composer, possessed of a warm and stirring passion.
There are surprises in the U.S. scenes, such as Ilmar and Aldo’s tour of devastated Detroit, where crumbling buildings remind Aldo of the decaying city he calls home. The brothers make their debut as a duo not in a concert hall but at an outdoor Fourth of July celebration for an appreciative audience.
As the Trump era incrementally closes all the doors Obama opened to Cuba, the new restrictions on travel and cultural exchange become nothing short of heartbreaking for these two artists, as it surely is for thousands of other Cubans and Cuban-Americans with cross-border family ties. The film underscores these losses with profound emotion in an unforgettable scene in which Ilmar joins Aldo in a studio recording of one of the latter’s new compositions.
An absolutely gorgeous piece of music made that much more sublime by Ilmar’s violin arrangement and accompaniment, the full human tragedy of America's pointless and continuing isolation of Cuba comes crashing down. Strongly recommended. Aud: E, I, J, H, C, P.
Included in our list of Best Documentaries 2021.
