Filmmaker Rolando Almirante will soon star the shooting of his first fiction film, which is entitled La saga de Daniel.
Almirante is known for some of his previous documentaries such as La Leyenda de Arsenioand El proceso and for the popular television show he directs: El triángulo de la confianza. However, this time, he will undertake a challenge with a musical film, a genre that has not had significant exponents in recent Cuban films. This movie will be coproduced by ICAIC (Cuban film Institute by its acronym in Spanish) and RTV Comercial. Gerardo Alfonso will be in charge of the music; he has written tenth songsespecially for this film. The tracks will be interpreted by trova singers Diego Cano and Erick Méndez, among other musicians.
The team is currently working on the first stage and will start working with the cast soon. This will definitely be a challenge because they have to find actors with dancing skills or dancers with theatrical skills.
La saga de Daniel will be a movie about dance, dancers and the beautiful but complex universe of classic ballet.
“As producer I’ve had a debt with dance for several years now. So, I started to make up this film so that it included certain shows and I shaped it until I wrote the script.” It is a fiction story inspired in real experiences. There is always a friend with similar stories that motivate your work. I have a friend that used to live in the Cienaga de Zapata but his talent was discovered during a baseball game. I used referents from real life but many other elements are fiction. I wrote the first version along with Sebastián Miló and then playwright Fabián Suárez joined us. I like to work on teams so that the plot can be enriched from everyone’s ideas. I have watched and studied many musical films–Cuban, European and North American– to use them as referents, stated the producer for OnCuba.
Why did you choose the title La saga de Daniel?
A saga is a set of events. Cubans’ life is some sort of saga, when we think we have just achieved something life sends us back to the beginning. This happens to the main character of the film over and over again. It is about an inner search we have to undertake in order to achieve our goals.
Can you talk more about the plot of the story?
The story is about a boy named Daniel, a restless boy from the Cienaga de Zapata. He gets the attention of some ballet professors and they take him to study dance. The course of his life changes when he meets Diana, the most talented girl in school, with whom he experiences his first love. Daniel falls in love for the girl, but when he finds out Diana’s family is living the country he looses interest in school, but not for dance. The day of the final test, Daniel decides tosay Diana good bye but when he gets to school he is expelled for not taking the test. He returns to the Cienaga but he feels he doesn’t belong there any more, his friends have changed and he has changed as well. Now, he has a different way of thinking and feeling about everything around him. Daniel grows up and his adventure spirit leads him to leave to the Cuban capital, Havana, which dazzles him. Walking down the street, Daniel discovers a dance company directed by a man who would become his teacher and friend, Gabriel Ordoñez. Along with Gabriel and his colleagues, they arrange an international dance meeting and Daniel meets Ulla, a German dancer with whom he lives an intense romance. After successful performances in Havana, the company travels to Spain for an important tour. The memory of Diana, his first love, hunts him as he constantly looks for her in Madrid. They are meant to meet again and they do, but Diana is now living in a different city, she is married and she has three children. The final stage of the tour brings some sad news: the company is breaking up because some of its members have decided not to return to Cuba. Daniel’s return to the island is very sad and frustrating. Ulla, the German dancer, has also returned to her country. As some sort of comfort and peace, Daniels returns to the Cienaga for a family visit.
