A new Venezuelan film at the Miami Film Festival depicts a story of loss and escape that paints a sobering picture of the country’s reality during the deadly nationwide protests of 2017.
It Would Be Night in Caracas follows Adelaida, a 38-year-old woman who just lost her mother and faces a collapsing city and an invasion of her home by regime loyalists. She’s forced to give up her identity and everything she stands for to reach safety.
Mariana Rondón, who co-directed the movie with Marité Ugás, hopes the plot and its historical background resonate with a Venezuelan community and international diaspora that continues to grapple with a crumbling nation.
“Historically, these types of movies about complex political situations end up getting made years after the situation passes,” said Rondón, a native of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. “We are making this movie while it is still night in Caracas.”
The film — titled Aún es de Noche en Caracas, in its original Spanish title — features Natalia Reyes in the lead role, with renowned Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez, who's been in major Hollywood movies like Point Break and Wrath of the Titans, both starring and producing. It's based on a book by Karina Sainz Borgo, which portrayed the unrest and violent protests in Venezuela during the constitutional crisis of 2017.
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That January, amid food scarcity and a growing economic crisis, the socialist Venezuelan government arrested opposition leaders, cancelled diplomatic dialogue and later dissolved the opposition-led National Assembly, leading to thousands taking the streets in every major city.
Over 74 days of protests, 15,000 people were injured and 91 died at the hands of security services and the military. Footage from social media and studies from international groups like Amnesty International outlined indiscriminate violence such as government security groups throwing tear gas into houses and randomly shooting at passers-by during protests.
Recreating Caracas
Ahead of the film's shoot, Rondón and a creative team went to modern-day Caracas — a risky endeavor in itself, given the anti-regime nature of the film — to study the architecture, lighting and urban landscaping for a faithful recreation in their Mexico City set.
“We found a location [in Mexico] that we felt accomplished [the similarity]. We took pictures and looked for three Venezuelan architects in Mexico City. We lied to them and told them ‘Look at this picture, this is Caracas. Help me find a place like this in Mexico,’ and they all said it was impossible to find,” Rondón said. “That's how we knew we had the right place.”
Rondón said every minuscule detail mattered to make the movie immersive. The granite floors of the apartment, flooring that was common in Venezuelan architecture, were painted on. As was a modified replica of the iconic floor of the Simón Bolívar International Airport, originally painted by artist Carlos Cruz-Diez.
In addition to these faithful sets, Rondón said they also used footage from settings in Caracas like El Ávila peak to immerse the viewer. Scenes of violent protests outside Adelaida’s apartment were also combined with real footage of the 2017 protests showing the government’s brutality against the masses, like a scene where an armored vehicle runs over protesters in the street.
“We combined [footage] with archive material so that when you feel the film, when you see the film you feel the same energy from both materials, and mostly for our Venezuelan viewers to feel that the film was happening in Caracas,” said co-director Ugás.
Rondón said she was in Caracas at the time, but even she could not believe some of the stories from people who were arrested or detained.
“There were things of a magnitude and horror that we didn’t have the ability to imagine, and we thought it was important that the story was as loyal as it could be to what was happening then,” she said.
This is seen in scenes like conversations between the main character and her friend’s brother, who details the physical and psychological torture he was put through when he was arrested by the government armed paramilitary groups, the colectivos. Or in a scene that shows that when people were being arrested, they would yell out their names and ID card numbers so neighbors could look for their families and notify them.
Connecting with Venezuelan migrants
Though intricately woven into the political unrest of Venezuela at the time, the story of Adelaida is also a more quiet, personal story about grief and loss.
By telling an emotional, fictional story in the context of that reality, the filmmakers hoped to also connect with American and international audiences who may not be as familiar with the realities of Venezuela's dictatorship and the recent history of attempts to end it.
“This is a movie about loss. About the loss of a mother, the loss of a love, the loss of a home, the loss of identity and the loss of a country,” Ugás said.
Told between violent scenes outside Adelaida’s apartment in Caracas and flashbacks from her childhood between the city and coastal town Ocumare de la Costa, the film gives a detailed look into the reality of many Venezuelans. Especially those who have had to flee the country over the past two decades.
Rondón and Ugás did a tour of screenings through Europe in the past few months, and they said at every screening there were Venezuelans who would raise their hand and say, “This is my life. I’m the one in the airport, I’m the one paying for a fake passport, I ’m the one getting on the truck to cross the border.”
“From the day we started the movie, we asked ourselves the question ‘Is doing anything to survive the same as saving yourself?’” Rondón said. “I think not. And that’s what migrating is: you survive, but you don’t save yourself.”
IF YOU GO
What: It Would be Night in Caracas
When: Saturday April 18 at 3 p.m.
Where: Olympia Theater 174 E Flagler St, Miami.
For more information, click here
