Los Hermanos/The Brothers

Siblings Ilmar and Aldo Lòpez-Gàvilan, six years apart in age but conjoined by talent and a love of music, evoke the history of U.S.-Cuba relations — living on opposite sides of a geopolitical chasm more than half a century wide. Classical violinist Ilmar was a teenager when he left Cuba in the 1980s to play with orchestras in Moscow, Spain, Los Angeles, and finally New York, the place he now calls home. His younger brother Aldo, a child prodigy and virtuoso classical and jazz pianist, chose to make his life on the island nation he loved. Both men soared in their careers. And yet, restrained by embargos, travel bans, and finances, the brothers saw each other rarely and had long ago shelved their aspirations of playing together professionally. Until 2015, when a diplomatic thaw made that abandoned dream a reality. Tracking Ilmar and Aldo’s parallel lives, poignant reunion, and momentous performances together on stages in Cuba and across the U.S., Los Hermanos/The Brothers offers a nuanced, often startling view of estranged nations through the lens of their music, each thriving in its own way. The film also presents an intensely moving, personal perspective on an unending geopolitical conflict who's next stage remains unknown.