• Submitted by: admin
• Arts and Culture
• Cinema
• 02 / 22 / 2007

The film had its world premiere this week at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, a few weeks before its first Cuba screening on March 8.

With his daring and quixotic like ideas, Perez offers us a film quite different from his past productions, which he says may surprise viewers that hope to see a continuation of his award winning Suite Havana (2003).

The film is based on a bold script written by the director with Eduardo del Llano. It includes two independent stories that escape the most conservative canons of filmmaking. In its first part, Madrigal tells the story of Luisita and Javier, which for reasons of space was not included in Perezs earlier film La vida es silbar. Then it moves to a feverish speculation.

Madrigal was produced by ICAC (Cuban Film Institute) and Wanda Vision of Spain and is set completely in Havana. Without becoming the main focus, the film invites the viewer to reflect on the relativity and ambivalence of all human conduct.

This time, "without a safety net," Perez makes a subjective and metaphoric film that passes through artificiality and a world of theater that he reintroduces, in a certain way, the esthetic discourse of his film Madagascar (1994).

The filmmaker returns with his preferred team of Raul Perez Ureta working as director of photography, Julia Yip in editing and a sound track by Edesio Alejandro. The movie is first high definition digital Cuban film.

Anxious and expectant about how his film will be received Fernando Perez spoke with Granma about this new challenge or "free fall" as he describes each situation in which he is trapped by the mystery of creation.

"I am quite satisfied with how the images turned out, the atmosphere and above all the acting. The film starts from an unreal reality, deliberately contrived that appears to develop in another dimension, although structured with real characters of flesh and blood and moving in the realm of feelings and sensations," said Perez.

"One of the greatest challenges was to create an imaginary world, with very few references in Cuban cinema, without trying to make a classic science fiction film. I like to experiment with young actors and with others that I am used to working with. In this case Liety Chaviano and Carlos Enrique Almirante were chosen after a rigorous selection process. There were many couples with great acting skills but unfortunately a film is only one.

"I strongly believe that those who work as lead actors for the first time do it with much passion and give so much of themselves that it serves as an inspiration and motivation to the director who guides them," concluded Fernando Perez.

Source: Granma