Eating the sun is the title of the latest film by director Alfredo Ureta that will soon begin filming. It is not a fad that the title is English, as the film is spoken mostly in English due to trade issues and the origin of one of the characters.
It is a psychological horror movie, an unprecedented genre in our film industry and fits alongside the works that bypass Spanish and other obvious signs of being Cuban.
The film will have ninety-five minutes of footage and will focus on the story of Julia and David with their dog Flash. Both make a couple about to have a baby that will live unsettling experiences during a solar eclipse, after their car breaks down in a lonely place. Precisely the circumstance appeals, according to Ureta, to the magical and foreboding value that is given to the eclipse in pre-Columbian cultures such as the Aztec.
The film will feature production by Reymel Delgado, photography by Alejandro Pérez, sound by Osmany Olivares, music by Magda Rosa Galvan and Juan Antonio Leyva, who have accompanied Ureta in previous films.
Eating the Sun was filmed on Cuban soil with probable locations located in the Valle de Viñales (Pinar del Rio), Topes de Collantes (Sancti Spiritus), and areas of the capital’s Lenin Park.
With Ureta, who is still immersed in the pre-filming stage, OnCuba chatted for project details.
The film is a psychological terror, rara avis in our contemporary audiovisual …What main features of the subgenre it will include?
It is a film based on the suggestion, where many of the events are actually happening in the minds of the characters, but from a totally realistic view.
You were to begin shooting in March last year, why has production taken so long?
I think for the better, we have been fortunate that some people joined the project and suggested we search for an actor of some presence in the international market to integrate it, which has caused us to have to adjust dates and other financing needs.
How came the idea of the argument, then the script?
My wife was pregnant, we were not find in Cuba and I had much leisure time, then I decided to use the circumstances and experience that life was giving me as rich as pregnancy and birth of a child. After having the idea, all the material was within reach of my hand, I was going through similar situations to the characters, with the difference that in our case, we both wanted our son.
What inspired you?
A few months before writing the script I had discovered to my amazement a great Cuban writer, an 83 year old lady that charmed me with all her work; it was mostly fantasy and horror literature, a kind of Stephen King of Cuba, her name is Esther Diaz Llanillo. Although my story is not connected to any of it, I am convinced that in those days I was influenced by the atmosphere, and characters that were part of Llanillo stories.
You said you intended to make a film with artistic value but that it would work commercially. To what extent can a film be commercial without harming its essence as art?
The film came out at the fair, as well Tarkovsky said, one of the greats of this art, then really what is its essence? It is much more difficult to make films or any art for the vast majority without betraying yourself, with taste and simplicity, than to make it for critics and festivals.
In addition to market issues, why did you decide that the talks were almost all in English?
The dialogues are not only in English, when required they speak in Spanish, is a mixed couple, an Anglo and Cuban, who live in an English speaking country, it made sense to them to communicate in that language, but from the beginning these characters and the story were revealed to me in English. Moreover, it was a plus when negotiating with producers and distributors, that added an interesting detail, a Cuban film in English.
You return to minimalism you explored before Mole’s Den, what other contact points established between the two films?
Yes, I like to explore inside the characters and to do so I usually pick a few, so in the future delivery there are few characters. In La Guarida… if you look closely there is suspense, and even an attempt or brush with terror: the sequence in the tunnels.
What are the main issues addressed in the movie?
In general the loss, the loss of reason, trust, innocence, the beloved, son, your partner, your idiosyncrasies, your professional life and, of course, love.
Why did you choose that title?
Eating the Sun comes from an ancient belief that the Hispanic cultures gave supernatural powers to eclipses, the Sun God for them faced during an eclipse a malevolent creature, a shadow that would devour the world and make it dark. In this battle the Sun God or Tonatiu as they called him, fought against this creature who always won, only that the victims of these battles were pregnant women and children born during the Eclipse, so is the Eclipses called “Tonatiu cualo” or” Eaten Sun “. In our story the heroine is pregnant, the car gets broken, she and her husband are on a little traveled road, on a day that the occurrence of a solar eclipse is announced.
What would you highlight of the movie?
For me the most interesting part of this story is how, from characters and circumstances very earthy and realistic we arrive at a psychological thriller, where terror lurks around every corner.
This will be your third work of fiction although the video clip has occupied much of your audiovisual production. Will the film have some influence of this way of filming?
I think not, nor is found in my two previous films. Of the video clip I appreciate spontaneity and craft that has given us, in one way or another has allowed us to deal with many situations that when filming no longer catch us by surprise and our critical conditions of budget, where we had to find a way to succeed.
Wha are you so interested in this genre?
If you ask me if I’m an artist, I would say no, I’m just a filmmaker. The film for me comes down to tell stories that reach people, and genres are like rivers flowing some more than others, but if you know how to sail in them they are a great way to get where you want.
Will it have only two actors?
The main weight of the film is taken by the two leading actors, but there will be some others to help us tell the story.
It is my understanding that the female lead is Yoandra Suárez; did you already choose the male lead?
Not yet, but there is a short list depending on dates and negotiations between producers, they and their agents.
Is it true that the film is a kind of mix of The Shining, by Kubrick with Tarkovsky’s Stalker?
Hopefully, but I doubt I could even get close to those two monsters of the genre. To that mixture I would add Polanski Rosemary’s baby and Vertigo Hitchcock, although the latter only for its exquisite staging and filming so precisely.
