MIAMI, United States. – planted, the director’s new film Lilo Vilaplanais inspired by the story of more than a thousand of the first opponents of the Fidel Castro regime, political prisoners who were “forgotten” after long years in prison, told the news agency EFE the director of the film himself.
“They fell prey while they were minors and some served almost 20 years” in prison, Vilaplana specifies.
Although it is a fictional feature film, it is inspired by real events, since the stories of the characters were told by surviving political prisoners of Castroism.
“There are three characters who carry the central line: a union leader, a university student and a guerrilla who fought first in El Escambray against (Fulgencio) Batista and later against Castro,” Vilaplana explained.
“Each of these three characters at the same time are inspired by several in real life,” he added.
In that way, planted includes the story of political prisoner Zoila Águila Almeida, known as “The Escambray Girl” for rising up in that area of the country against the Fidel Castro regime.
The planted ones “are the great forgotten ones. The FMC (Federation of Cuban Women) forgot them and in exile almost no one names them,” lamented Vilaplana.
The actisight Reinol Rodríguez also told EFE that the feature film shows “lor what happened to the Cuban political prisoners, how they abused them, the beatings and humiliations they suffered at the hands of the militia women”.
“We want the legacy of the political prisoners to go down in history, what they suffered and went through, now that almost all of them have died,” he added.
For his part, Vilaplana assures that planted should not be seen as a second part of his previous film (planted), but as “a different film”.
In addition to Vilaplana, the ex-political prisoner Ángel Santiesteban took part in writing the script. In this process, 26 former political prisoners were interviewed, in addition to their relatives. The scriptwriters also turned to books like memory of a survivorby Ana Lázara Rodríguez; In the clutches of the green ravensby Ermelinda Núñez; Y They gave everything for Cubaby Mignon Medrano.
The main female roles in the film fall on the actresses Alina Robert, Claudia Tomas and Rachel Vallory, who are accompanied by Yuliet Cruz, Lili Rentería, Vivian Ruiz, Larissa Vega, Amarilis Núñez and Juanita Baró.
The film is expected to be released in early 2023 and will participate in the Miami Film Festival.
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