Starring Héctor Medina. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Rated 14A

An Irish production made mostly in Cuba, Viva focuses on a subculture within a subculture: a group of drag performers eking out a living in officially homophobic Havana. It centres on unflamboyantly androgynous Jesus (impressive, if slightly muted, newcomer Héctor Medina), who works as a hairdresser. This is something of an obvious interest to director Paddy Breathnach, who made 2001’s Blow Dry, although the script is by Mark O’Halloran.

Jesus gets by on the blue-rinse needs of cranky old ladies in his rundown neighbourhood. But his real passion is for fluffing wigs down at a popular cabaret. Well, he secretly dreams of being on-stage, lip-synching to glorious songs of tortured love, but shyness gets in the way.

Jesus has his chance when one of the in-house divas runs off with their best wigs, and a replacement is needed pronto. Taking the name Viva, he starts unsteadily but blossoms under the tutelage of Mama (veteran Luis Alberto García), the club’s world-weary den mother. Unfortunately, his rise coincides with the release from prison of Angel, the father he never knew. Jesus’s way of life is not appreciated by this former boxer fallen on hard times and bad health. It’s interesting that the macho dad is played by Jorge Perugorría, who was the gay character in Cuba’s breakthrough Strawberry and Chocolate, from 1993. But once Angel moves in with Jesus (get it?), the movie becomes a more familiar polemic on competing notions of masculinity. That said, Viva still works its way back to an emotional finish.

There’s a more serious flaw, however. Since it’s already subtitled, and the filmmakers speak English, it’s truly hard to understand why the movie provides no translation of the highly charged songs that Viva and others perform nightly. Mama implores our tentative hero to milk every last ounce of drama from those lyrics, and that’s a lot harder to do—or appreciate—when you don’t know what the hell they mean.