García Bernal's 'Hombre al Agua' Premieres at Venice, TIFF — SkimNews
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- García Bernal directed and stars in 'Hombre al Agua,' which world premiered at the Venice Biennale and had its North American premiere at TIFF; the film continues the class-as-theme thread from his first two directorial outings, 'Déficit' (2007) and 'Chicuarotes' (2019).
- 'Hombre al Agua' follows Camilo, a Cuban lifeguard who saves a Mexican businessman named Abel and is brought to Mexico, only to discover his new life is 'a carefully orchestrated plan'; García Bernal called the film a comedy exploring 'the crisis of masculinity' and 'the political landscape in Latin America today.'
- García Bernal began writing the film 'eight or nine years ago' with Argentine playwright Mariano Pensotti, who helped shape its non-linear structure; he also name-checked formative lessons from directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Walter Salles, Michel Gondry, and Pablo Larraín.
- La Corriente del Golfo, the production company García Bernal co-founded with Diego Luna, produced the film alongside Cárcava Cine ('The Untamed') and Stacy Perskie's Redrum ('Spectre,' 'Bardo'); international sales are handled by Paris-based The Pool Films.
- Financing was the trickiest hurdle — García Bernal said that every time he tried to cast a Cuban actor as the Cuban lead Camilo, investor interest would drop, a problem he framed as part of a broader climate in which 'everything now has to be thoroughly and mathematically proven' before companies will back 'original films that aren't based on established IP.'
- Principal photography took place mainly in the Mexican state of Yucatán, including locations near Mérida and the beach at Sisal, with additional shooting in Mexico City and three days in Havana, the only urban setting the filmmakers wanted to depict.
- The cast includes Esmeralda Pimentel, Debóra Nascimento, Natalia Oreiro, and Jorge Salinas (the last of whom also appeared in 'Amores Perros'), the film García Bernal cited as his benchmark: 'When it came out, it became something extraordinary and transcended time... I hope my film will also transcend time in some way.'
Why it matters: García Bernal's decision to self-finance through his own shingle after Cuban-casting killed investor appetite exposes how representation politics are entangled with film-finance risk models — companies wouldn't back a Cuban lead even on a Cuba-set drama he was willing to direct and star in himself, so La Corriente del Golfo, Cárcava Cine, and Redrum made it 'with very little money' instead.
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