/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-VENEZUELA: Don Drug Trafficker

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Sep 23 2003 (IPS) - Venezuelan-Uruguayan filmmaker José Ramón Novoa is working on the final takes of the feature film "El Don", one of the few cinematic productions being filmed this year in Venezuela, with the aim of premeiring next year.

The film tells the story of the wild life of a drug lord. It portrays this world of crime from a Latin American standpoint, exploring what has occurred since the death of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and the imprisonment of the Ochoa brothers in the early 1990s in Colombia.

"El Don", inspired on the Escobar story, stars Colombian actor Juan David Restrepo, who also worked in "La virgen de los sicarios" (Our Lady of the Assassins, directed by Barbet Schroeder), and Venezuelan actors Laureano Olivares, Edgar Ramírez and Beatriz Vázquez.

The film’s budget is around 800,000 dollars, with the resources contributed by the Autonomous National Cinematography Centre of Venezuela and the Ibermedia Fund, created during the 1997 Ibero-American Summit of heads of state from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

The story focuses on the criminal beginnings of Antonio Caicedo, whose mother is a schoolteacher and who never knew his father. Antonio falls in love with the daughter of a big landowner, and enters the world of drug trafficking to make his fortune so he can win her heart.

Set in "anyplace" Latin America, only two cities are clearly identified in the film: Miami and New York.

"In Latin America, drugs are stigmatised and the authorities pursue the drug lords, but we have forgotten one aspect, which is those who are in charge of distribution in the United States. We never see them get caught, which is why we wanted to show this other viewpoint," scriptwriter Henry Herrera told IPS.

"This is not a moralising film. It simply narrates the life of a mid-level drug lord who doesn’t reach the notariety of Pablo Escobar, but who illustrates the drug trafficking environment," Herrera said.

"Audiences are going to identify with Antonio, because he is a generous man, a contributor to the community, a man with a heart; that’s what I like about him," said supporting actor Ramírez.

In explaining his choice of a script about drug lords, Novoa said, "drug trafficking and crime are phenomena that have an effect on all of us. Nevertheless, it is a contained film. There is violence, but it is like the lash of a whip; it happens and then is done."

"What we see is that although they are arrested or killed, the drug lords do not disappear in Latin America. There is always someone to take their place. Therefore one must wonder if the repressive policies in the style of the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency) are working," said Herrera.

In "El Don" none of the characters reaches age 30, says Novoa, because "in that underworld they begin very young, and then they disappear, they die."

The director, born in 1949 in Montevideo and emigrated to Venezuela in 1978, has made the feature films "Sicario" (Assassin), "Huelepega" (Gluesniffer), "Garimpeiros" (Gold diggers) and "Punto y raya", all with high content of violence and most with references to drug trafficking.

"Sicario", which premiered in 1994 and tells the story of a group of young Venezuelans hired to kill, was nominated for an Oscar and received several awards at international film festivals.

"Huelepega" is about the lives of street children, "Garimpeiros" portrays illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon, and "Punto y raya" tells the story of a Colombian recruit meeting a Venezuelan colleague on the border, how they become friends but are forced to kill each other.

The premiere of "El Don" will follow the release of the documentary "Ciudadano Escobar" (Citizen Escobar), which Colombian filmmaker Sergio Cabrera says is almost completed, and is based on dozens of interviews with people linked to the fallen drug kingpin.

Cabrera’s reasons for making film were similar to Novoa’s. "I don’t like it when our stories are told by others," he said.

"The story of Escobar, at least cinematographically, has been monopolised by the U.S. television networks. We think it is important for the story to be told by us, and until now nobody has done it," Cabrera told the Bogotá newspaper El Espectador.