(MENAFN- Arab Times) LOS ANGELES April 12 (RTRS): Alvaro Augustin producer and CEO of Spain's Telecinco Cinema was delighted and even a little surprised at how strongly 'Spanish Affair' ('Ocho Apellidos Vascos') played at the opening night of the Panama Film Festival.
The film which is the highest-grossing film of all time in Spain had been totally embraced by the festival guests at the opening gala in the National Theater and had enchanted both actress Geraldine Chaplin and Brazilian director Karim Ainouz. Chaplin went as far as to say that she felt her father Charlie Chaplin would have loved the film and talked of the parallels with the 'Great Dictator' in which Chaplin had to play a person he was not. 'I knew that the audience might miss as much as 50% of the jokes as they are so local to Spain and the language' Augustin told Variety 'but it still seems to work with audiences outside of Spain.' The film has already opened in Mexico and Puerto Rico but when the film was invited to the Miami Film Festival the producer had assumed that it had been watched by Spanish speakers. 'It turned out the people who had seen it and loved it were English speakers.' Augustin is experienced enough (his production credits include 'The Impossible' 'The Orphange' 'Cell 211' and 'Pan's Labyrinth') to know that the extraordinary success of 'Spanish Affair' in Spain where it has grossed EUR55.2 million ($59.6 million) is something you can't really explain or analyze too closely. 'It was clearly the right film at the right moment. It touched on issues that had not been addressed before in Spain. It had a great script and the cast worked. But we only marketed and promoted the film in the way we would all our films. Word of mouth certainly played a part and the film built in Spain from its opening weekend. It became a cultural phenomenon and it was even discussed in parliament.' Augustin confirmed that a second instalment to 'Spanish Affair ' is moving ahead smoothly and that the basis of the script is nearly in place save for a few tweaks from the screenwriters of the original Borja Cobeaga and Diego San Jose. The director Emilio Martinez Lazaro and key cast members Clara Lago Dani Rovira and Carmen Machi who developed such onscreen chemistry are all expected to return. Rovira who plays Rafa especially impressed Augustin as by trade he was a standup comedian with no bigscreen experience. After 'Spanish Affair' he now has a solid box office pedigree and even hosted February's Goya Awards where he won the award for best new actor. Looking ahead Augustin highlights two major upcoming releases from Telecinco Cinema. The first is Enrique Gato's animated feature 'Capture the Flag' ('Atrapa la bandera') which is scheduled for a summer release in Spain. The story concerns a young boy's dream to get to the moon (his grandfather should have been on the first Apollo moon landing) which becomes a reality when he finds himself in a race to the moon to place a flag before the bad guys get there first and claim the moon for their own nefarious interests. Extremely The film will be released globally by Paramount and is an extremely ambitious project as this is a European company delivering world-class animation and telling an American story. The US-based animation studios and distributors will be following the results with interest especially as 'Capture the Flag' has been produced at a fraction of what the US animation houses would spend. The other release Augustin says to look for is Alejandro Amenabar's psychological thriller 'Regression' which stars Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson; it's set for an August 28 release in the US and Oct 2 in Spain. Augustin says it is in part a return to the cop movies of the 1990s. Given the success of 'Spanish Affair' it is also probably only a question of time until Augustin and Telecinco are discussing the international remake rights for Spain's most popular domestic blockbuster to date. One century after the Panama Canal opened 'Panama Canal Stories' marks another milestone for Panama this time in terms of its fledgling film industry. A five-part omnibus it underscores the large ambitions production energies and standards of Panama-based filmmakers. The film weaves five tales of human destiny spanning the century. In Carolina Herrero's '1913' a Jamaican canal worker kills his foreman and flees with his fiancee. In Pinky Mon's '1950' a young boy the son of a just-deceased engineer grows up in the Canal Zone inheriting his dad's love of Panama. The '1964' segment directed by Luis Franco Bentley concerns the passion between a young Panamanian photographer and a US girl against the background of university students' protests at US occupation. While the first three are love stories the last two are about entente. In Abner Benaim's '1977' a taxi driver (and self-appointed Panamanian spy) introduces two US diplomats hammering out the Torrijos-Carter treaties to Panamanian nightlife. Pituka Ortega Heilbron's '2013' tracks a singer as she visits Panama. It is a family's tale of reconciliation with one another and the past. 'Panama Canal Stories' plays the fourth IFF Panama. Variety talked to two of its producers. Ileana Novas and Pablo Schverdfinger and posed one question apiece to three of its directors. RTRS: Like works by other Panama-based filmmakers 'Panama Canal Stories' taps into events that have forged Panama and audiences' collective psyche by using stories that are easily relatable to tell this larger narrative. Pablo Schverdfinger: You are absolutely right. Panama is full of stories that have not been told. Cinematography in Panama is just starting and there is a huge need of filmmakers to share these stories. I think there is an urge to start telling stories from the inside stories that are representative of our idiosyncrasy. Maybe this is a natural process every national cinema has to go through. This film tries to catch a glimpse of the Panamanian soul. In 2013 a granddaughter of Clarice Thomson the cook who escapes with her fiancee after he's accidentally killed his US foreman says Clarice wrote down her story so that nobody else wrote it for her. There's a sense of this being stories of the Canal told from Panama's point of view though with a large sensitivity. Schverdfinger: History has always had at least two sides. The aim was to shed some light on intimate and maybe representative experiences of those who lived in Panama at those times. Some of them Panamanians and some of them Panamanians to be. It took a lot of research. Testimonies from those who were directly or indirectly involved were taken or read from documents letters books articles or blogs on the Internet. Feelings and thoughts of all these people and their descendants were carefully considered while developing and writing the script. RTRS: Each story is different but all present an overriding arc: humiliation and separation (1913) then again separation (1950) a romance that ends in confrontation; and then the tale of the diplomats that begins with confrontation and ends in friendship; and a reconciliation between a Panamanian family and their gringa relative. Is this an allegory of the Panamanian and US people? Schverdfinger: Panama has always had a complex relationship with the US. From the Panamanian point of view there are lots of mixed feelings toward the US. The film tried to depict these feelings honestly and the result might have been as someone once said that the film shows the birth childhood adolescence and maturity of Panama toward its relationship with the US. It was not a planned allegory; I think it was more like an intrinsic result. RTRS: It seems like there was a huge production effort with the film and high production levels. How was it financed? And what were the largest production challenges? Ileana Novas: It was a really big film because the five different periods portrayed demanded multiple locations talent sets and wardrobe almost the same effort as five separate feature films. As it was a big budget (by Latin American standards) and a quite short time period to raise funds I could say developing and financing it was the biggest challenge. As soon as Pituka Ortega Heilbron (a really talented filmmaker and producer) Pablo Schverdfinger and I partnered we immediately agreed on the approach and worked closely together conceiving a creative and stubborn team of producers/executive producers. We knocked lots of doors to fundraise the film and didn't give up although more than once things got really tough. Multiple complex finance structures were designed as the biggest percentage of financing had to come from local orgs and private enterprises. This is Panama's second feature film in the last 60 years so it was tough but luckily for us everybody took it as a national challenge and was so proud of participating that it proved possible. RTRS: 'Panama Canal Stories' was released in Panama in October. What was the reaction? Where has it been seen internationally? Will it be seen on a Panamanian TV which is where it can really an impact? Novas: The local reaction of the audience was beyond expectations. It stayed 10 weeks in local theaters. The international premiere was held at the 32nd Miami Festival with two full-house screenings that included heartfelt testimonies of the public in the after-screening Q&As. The release on national TV will probably be next year. RTRS: Are there other projects in the pipeline either among the filmmakers behind 'Panama Canal Stories' or other Panama-based cineastes to deal with other parts of Panama's history? Novas: Together with Pituka and Pablo we are developing three projects right now. Two of them portray part of Panama's history: 'Waga' (a 1925 drama set in the Darien Jungle based on a true story) 'Non Likely Partnership' (a documentary related to a national basketball team from the 1980s) and 'Noctilucas' (a contemporary drama about an indigenous community). The other directors of 'Panama Canal Stories' are developing contemporary fiction film projects. RTRS: In 'Panama Canal Stories' you feel the weight of historical research. Clarice Thompson's story rings true. But was she a true-life figure or a composite? Carolina Herrero: From the very beginning we had a clear idea of Clarice's character and the history and context behind it. I did extensive formal research but most importantly? I immersed myself in the Afro-Caribbean culture here in Panama through interactions with descendants of this heritage group.? Philip's character and especially the relationship between the sisters was conceived and nurtured by the oral family traditions they shared with me. In this process I was taught some Congo and therefore the 'cimarron' character was born. Clarice's character came to life through the snippets of untold stories people's lives images and memories. RTRS: '1950' shows not only how the other half lives but how it feels in the story of a boy who inherits his dead father's love of Panama. The film seems to suggest that just as US zone residents failed to recognize the humanity of Panamanians these failed to recognize the humanity of the 'Zonians...' Pinky Mon: It is a fact that generations of Panamanians have grown immersed in a speech of nationalism and the struggle for sovereignty. So much so that hardly have we ever stopped to think about why these North Americans felt so deeply rooted in the Canal Zone; to the point of actually feeling that they had a legitimate right over a piece of land in a foreign country. The social and political systems that ruled the Canal Zone made up for very comfortable way of life for the 'Zonians.' They made a very good life for themselves here; two generations of them were even born in the Panama Canal Zone. These added to the obvious importance of a United States-made enterprise like the Panama Canal made up for enough justification for them to feel that they had a right to be and stay here. So yes the politics of the time not understanding each other intolerance and ignorance were the real fence that separated the Panamanians and the North American Zonians in those days. This is the bridge that through its characters this movie tries to cross. It was also one of the strongest things that drew me to this script; the story of the Panama Canal Zone from the 'Zonian' point of view had never been told before. RTRS: '1964' is a love story but I believe a tribute both to the idealistic students who protested at US occupation and the power of the image to capture the beloved and change history... Luis Franco Bentley: The Jan. 9 affair created the conditions that allowed serious negotiations between Panama and US and eventually led to the transfer of the Canal. I was there. I saw it. This short film is a tribute to those brave students that defended the Panamanian sovereignty.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.