Socialism or Death

'Socialism or Death' was one of the most pompous slogans by Fidel Castro, the master of one of the world´s most longlived experiments in socialism. For a few hundred of Castro´s strictly monitored young citizens this slogan became something to be taken in dead earnest. They would not take anymore from a society that denied them their rights to enjoy rock´n´roll, whose police persecuted them for being 'different', cut their hair and did not even allow the church to arrange social get-togethers for young people. The 'Roqueros' hard-core rock´n´roll fans, would not subject to socialism, they chose death. In the end of the 80´s and the beginning of the 90´s some 200 young people chose to inject themselves with HIV-infected blood. A collective, slow but inexorable suicide. Today Los Roqueros are dying, some are already dead. The Cuban people and much of the world do not know what actually happened. But this is their story as it is told by the ones still alive, and those who are now dead. A unique reportage / documentary about Cuban life today but also very much about young people´s attitude towards life, want to protest, unfortunate belief in eternal life – how death entered their life.