In an exclusive interview for the newspaper The Republicwe spoke with the actor and filmmaker Salvador del Solar about his new project in Peru. Likewise, we consulted him about the Tudela law, promoted by the congresswoman Adriana Tudelawhose objective is that films that apply for public financing can only access half of their total production cost, something that many companies cannot achieve, which is why they seek a broader state financial contribution.
Notably, Salvador del Solar He was also former Minister of Culture, during the government period of the former president Martin Vizcarra. Furthermore, Salvador has been working and participating in the Peruvian film industry for years.
—What do you think about this Tudela bill, which does not favor the Peruvian film industry?
—There are many countries that know what it means for their cinematography to be projected to the world. The benefits are not only economic, they are also economic at the level of job creation, at the level of the country's image, But personally they are not the benefits that matter most to me. The benefit of cinematography being projected to the world is that a country finds a powerful mirror in which to see itself, a mirror in which its reality is, in a country like ours, the most complex, diverse.
We are the country of 'La boca del lobo', we are 'Gregorio', we are the country of 'Asu mare', we are the country of 'Wiñay Pacha', and we can say it despite the little support we have for our cinema. We dress like Westerners, like North Americans, we dance to North American music fundamentally, and we don't realize how much of that influence has to do with an immense cultural policy that makes us look at a country as a reference and look less at ourselves as self-referents.
There is no industry like the audiovisual industry, which has the potential for a country to recognize itself in its beauties and its ugliness, in its virtues and its defects, in his dreams and in his nightmares, but at least with his own reference, at least recognizing. We are that diverse. We have these gaps, we have these pending problems, we have this talent, these powers. So, it shouldn't be as difficult as it is to convince people that they have the capacity to make a country like Peru, which is one of the few in the world, which is the cradle of civilizations, which is a cultural reference for global level, you can count on the best possible tools to enhance your cinema.
So, beyond the ideological discrepancies, which are valid. Let us not lose sight of the fact that the cultural industry, beyond the industrial aspect, which generates so much employment and so much benefit, in the cultural aspect, has to do with identity.in our case, from one of the most culturally powerful countries on the planet. It is a mistake not to enhance. We are losing something whose potential benefits all Peruvians.
Salvador del Solar talks about 'Ramón', his new film project with Tondero. Photo: Marco Cotrina/La República
—What are the surprises we will see in 'Ramón'?
—We are in the middle of filming. It is a project that we have been developing for more than two years, which I have had the fortune of co-writing with Héctor Gálvez, whom I consider a great actor in our cinema, in this Tondero production., who has opted for this story, which is a story that seeks to explore a person's return to tenderness. An armored person for different reasons, who has wanted to strengthen himself, become strong, feel strong and pretend that none of the wounds in his life have really diminished him, to discover in the context of the pandemic, specifically the confinement that we were forced to of happening in the pandemic, and that there are things that you can't always run away from, you can't escape. This confinement forces him to confront everything he had pending and how to continue his life.
I think that the pandemic, for those of us who have been fortunate enough to remain here, meant an opportunity to review ourselves, to question some questions about our daily routine. So, it is an exploration of those pending issues, and in the case of the protagonist, who has the same name as his father, who was also called Ramón, is an exploration of the lingering wounds left with his father, who is no longer here.
—You have participated in different projects, such as 'Magallanes', 'Pantaleón y las visitadoras', now, 'Ramón', which is your favorite?
—It's very difficult, it's like when they ask you if one of your sons or daughters is your favorite. I think that those of us who are parents, for example, know that we find something special in each one, in my case, my daughters, and yes, obviously, I have infinite gratitude for 'Pantaleón', for what it meant to me as an actor, as a person, for the doors it opened for me. It is a film that turns 25 this year. Time goes by, obviously, 'Magallanes' means something very special to me, it was also a process of just under a decade of writing that script, getting financing, making it and getting them to join that project. Artists of the stature of Magali Solier, Damián Alcázar, Federico Luppi, Bruno Dar, Liliana Trujillo, Tatiana Astengo, not to mention production companies, such as Tondero or Cepa from Argentina, such as Proyectil from Colombia, who recognized in that work a potential that I hope it was ratified on Magellan's trip, not with Ramón, I feel something very similar. I think that in any case I can say that I am fortunate to have participated in some projects that I love so much.
—Now we know that this is a joint project. However, we would like to know Ramón's background. How did he come about? What was the inspiration?
—This is inspired by a real story that was confided to me and that I found very interesting, and that we then placed in a fictional context and to which we added other stories that we felt accompanied this story very well.. One of the things that excited me most about the possibility of Ramón is that the true story that I was told and trusted with me immediately moved me. It seemed to me that it is a necessary story to tell, that we live in times that need stories like these, of people who are capable of questioning what is supposedly unquestionable, of going beyond the borders, of what is supposed to be the accepted behavior and daring to review pains, which one could say is easier to avoid.
However, on the other side of that pain of facing it, there is or may be a reward without which you might feel like your life doesn't quite make sense.
Salvador del Solar, Emanuel Soriano, Álvaro Cervantes and Darío Yazbek, actors of 'Ramón'. Photo: Marco Cotrina/La República
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