Dermot Kennedy 'Power Over Me' by Courtney Phillips

David Knight - 29th Nov 2018

In this director's cut of Courtney Phillips's video for Dermot Kennedy, you get the full force of an absorbing story of courage and determination, set in the heart of Havana, Cuba.

It's all about a girl boxer who wants to be the best - not just among her fellow females, but against the boys too. Her motivation is utterly believable - we see her homelife, where she and her younger sister have no mother figure to defend them against a father who oozes malevolence. She needs to somehow escape.

This comes with the context of Cuba itself. It has that unique character that makes it so good on film - and it's never looked more richly atmospheric, thanks to brilliant work by the DoP David Procter. But the appraoch, combining drama and documentary, is also revealing about the true hardship under which people live. Havana may be beautiful, but as Phillips' excellent video shows, it's also an extremely tough place.