Yuli, the story of the dancer who did not want to dance
“The nice thing about shooting in other countries is that you end up talking to all kinds of people, from the institutions, the workers and the drivers to the managers of the theaters or the inhabitants of the house where you live for months”, he tells us Iciar Bollain.
The director of I give you my eyes was “one more neighbor” in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana to create Yuli, a film inspired by the life of the dancer Carlos Acosta (he stars in it himself) with music by Alberto Iglesias, which premieres on December 14.
“The part shot in Cuba was the most intense. The local team constantly contributed ideas”.
And it was not easy: “In addition to the country's own shortages, there were those that were added after Hurricane Irma last year. For example, we had to make the parquet floor for the ballet school set and there was no wood anywhere. It took weeks to put it together, bit by bit, searching around Havana. It was admirable."
Yuli premieres today!
The story happens in the 80s and 90s, but the city “has hardly changed for more than 50 years!” explains Icíar.
“When you remove the new cars from the blueprint you stay in the 50s or 60s. The conversations in the art department were endless and sometimes Kafkaesque...”.
The work culminated in Piccadilly Circus, in London, where Carlos made his stellar career.
“We celebrated the end of filming in a bar in Soho, missing the Cuban team and the team from Madrid”.
The Great Theater of Havana, headquarters of the National Ballet of Cuba
SHOOTING NOTEBOOK IN HAVANA
the face of art
“We shot in Los Pinos, where Carlos grew up, on the Malecón, in the Great Theater of Havana... And in the abandoned School of the Arts, which is incredible. Perhaps it is a lesser seen face of the city, that of art, that of families”.
Sun... and little fish
“The team rented houses in Vedado, a beautiful grid neighborhood built by Americans, with a few mansions from the 1920s.
On days off we went in a car from the 50s to beaches like Santa María del Mar, half an hour from the city, to eat fish in the beach bars. or to the swimming pool of the National Hotel (admission, €18, includes food and drink)”.
The neighborhood of El Vedado