UK Film Network

THE TIMES BFI 53^RD LONDON FILM FESTIVAL:

14-29 October 2009

Published by: Tremayne (Potter)

Monday 26 October

Ander

Dir-Scr.: Roberto Caston / with Josean Bengoetxea, Christian Esquivel, Mamen Rivera / Spain 2009 / 129 min.

I was lucky enough to receive a personal invite by its director Roberto Caston to the UK Premiere of the Basque-style Brokeback Mountain. I had spoken to him earlier that day at The Filmmaker Afternoon Tea at The Mayfair Hotel.

Q & A Session held at the end of the film

The director of the film, Roberto Caston, starts by giving a background to the film and how it came about.The Housing & Social Affairs Association commissioned the film, which is a rarity.  He began: “They wanted me to write something which dealt with social integration within the gay community.  And given this opportunity,I decided to make the characters very real by placing them in a rural setting.”

How did you find your actors?

“The casting warranted a good bunch of actors who were believable and spoke fluent Basque, which could have proved difficult.  Luckily Jose (Josean Bengoetxea), who plays Ander, was also The Secretary to Basque Actors and could make a few suggestions, which resulted in a closed Casting.”

“The actress who played Remi was an old friend of mine and a lead in my first short.  I still got her to do a screen test.”

“ As for Christian’s character, it was hard to find a Peruvian actor in Spain but then, I had a friend suggest Christian (Christian  Esquivel) who he’d seen in a T.V. series.”

Christian Esquivel, himself, at this point adds: “For a Latin American, to be given this opportunity was really quite something.  Also experiencing what happens the characters and the intensity that surrounds them.The director devoted a lot of time to each character’s development.”

Roberto Caston, the director, continues to speak about character development, “The actors were taken to a rural cottage, the same as you see shot in the film.”

Why do you think there were distribution issues for the film in Spain?

“Not only is the film concerning a gay relationship, it doesn’t come across in a very humourous way as is often the case with gay characters.

A proportion of the film would, also, have to be subtitled for a Spanish audience, to enable them to follow the scenes spoken in Basque.

I’m not that well known to the commercial circuit but I hope to have distribution in Spain before the year is out.  We will find we experience the same difficulties all over Latin America, as well as Brazil and Argentina.”

How do you see yourself moving forward?

“To continue on a similar vein, not like in ‘Babel’ though but with a few stories which interweave, as ‘without emotion, there’s no cinema.’ “