‘Los Frikis’: How Cuban punk rockers injected themselves with HIV to escape political repression

The movie, premiering this month, is based on real events in the early 1990s, when a group of young people in Cuba were looking for freedom from government repression.

A coming-of-age movie with a dramatic punk rock twist has a storyline that may sound unreal, but it's based on true events.

In "Los Frikis," set in early 1990s Cuba, hundreds of young, disenfranchised Cubans inject themselves with HIV during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, hoping to escape political repression by going inside government-run clinics, or sanitariums.

Based on true events, the film takes its title from the Spanish translation of the word “freaky,” referring to the punk rock movement that came together in Cuba during the 1980s and 1990s.

“I grew up in Miami, I have Cuban family, Cuban friends, but I didn’t know this story specifically, so it was very important for me to tell it,” said one of the movie's leads, Puerto Rican Guatemalan actor Adria Arjona.

Arjona, who starred earlier this year in the romantic comedy crime movie "Hit Man" and is known for her roles in the series "Andor" and "True Detective," spoke to NBC News alongside two of the movie's co-stars, Héctor Medina and Eros de la Puente.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/los-frikis-movie-cuban-punk-hiv-escape-repression-rcna184386

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