Travel has been described as the search for displacement and self-discovery. These are the themes which dominate Colombian director Sergio Cabrera's fourth feature film, Ilona llega con la lluvia (Ilona Arrives with the Rain), playing in competition.
The film, based on the novel by Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis, tells the tale of three friends - Maqroll, Ilona and Abdul - on a quest to attain their life's dream: an old tramp steamer on which they hope to sail around the Americas. While Maqroll enlists as a crew member on a boat that takes him to Panama City, the frequently lost, but equally loyal, Ilona is already in that city, trying to make the best of it. Together, they open a brothel to earn the money necessary for Abdul to buy the ship. One day, a young woman, Larissa, appears in the brothel. Her passionate and tortured personality leads both Maqroll and Ilona to question what they once thought certain.
Friendship, uprooting and the need to lead a heroic life through change and development are the subjects, not just of this film, but also of its genesis as a project. At the start, it was intended to be a TV series for Caracol Television in Colombia, but, as soon as Argentinian screenwriter Jorge Goldenberg got to work on the script, the idea grew, forcing Cabrera to put another project, the film Balada (Ballad), on the backburner. It was at this time that Italian, Spanish and Colombian producers were called in for the cash. Among them was Sandro Silvestri, who had co-produced Cabrera's La estrategia del caracol (The Strategy of the Snail) and Aguilas no cazan moscas (Eagles Don't Hunt Flies).
Actors from both Spain and Colombia were hired. The crew was also international: Cuban, Colombian, Spanish and Italian.
The film itself was shot in Cuba. "La Habana is the only city in Latin America that still preserves the architecture from the 50s," says Cabrera. "It served to create the kind of environment found in the novel." For all its beauty the city brought problems. "It was difficult to find things - nails, wood, refreshments. Also, the pace is slower." Luckily, Cabrera found the enthusiasm of the crew and the collaborators high: "Everyone felt that the film would help put an end to the unjust embargo that has been placed on this country."
So what started out as a novel turned into a TV series and later a film, where cast, crew and funding joined forces after crossing land and sea. Displacement led to further displacement, and this too seems to be a recurring theme in the director's life.
Born in Medellin, Colombia in 1950, Cabrera is the son of Spanish actors. At the age of 10, he moved to the People's Republic of China with his family, where he lived and studied philosophy at the University of Beijing. In 1968, he returned to Colombia and joined the guerrillas. After four years in the mountains, he went to London to study film.
In Colombia, the prolific Cabrera has worked as cinematographer, screenwriter, editor, director and producer. His oeuvre consists of eight shorts, one documentary entitled Elementos para una acuarela (Elements for a Watercolor), five mini-series for television, and four feature films: 1989's Tecnicas de duelo (Duel Techniques), 1993's La estrategia del Caracol, which beat Colombian box-office records with an audience of over two million, Aguilas no cazan moscas in 1994, and now Ilona llega con la lluvia. As befits one of life's travellers, his films have won awards at numerous international festivals, including Biarritz, New York, Gramado, San Juan, Tashkent, Cartagena, Bogotá, Huelva and Seminci de Valladolid.
Like his previous films, Ilona is a hotchpotch of stories, mixing characters and situations. It is comic in tone and concerned with issues that, at one point or another, touch a person, allowing him to move in a direction that he isn't accustomed to. After all, displacement often brings with it a certain underlying sense of consistency and commitment, for which Sergio Cabrera is known. Kris Rendon
Prod co: Emme (Italy), FotoEmme (Spain)
Prod: Sandro Silvestri
Dir: Sergio Cabrera
Scr: Jorge Goldenberg, Ana Goldenberg and Sergio Cabrera
Ph: Gianni Mammolotti
Art dir: Enrique Linero
Prod des: Felipe Dothee
Cos: Alessandra Montagna
Mus: Luis Bacalov
Ed: Nicholas Wentworth
Cast: Margarita Rosa de Francisco, Humberto Dorado, Imanol Arias, Pastora Vega
Running time: 122 mins
Int sales: Sacis
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