paradise lost - Pathé Films AG

DIMITRI RASSAM pReSenTS
NOBODY ESCAPES PABLO ESCOBAR
BENICIO DEL TORO
JOSH HUTCHERSON
©MIKA COTELLON ©2014 CHAPTER 2 – PATHÉ PRODUCTION – ORANGE STUDIO – ROXBURY – PARADISE LOST FILM A.I.E – NEXUS FACTORY – JOUROR DÉVELOPPEMENT
ESCOBAR:
PARADISE LOST
A FILM WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
ANDREA DI STEFANO
CLAUDIA TRAISAC BRADY CORBET CARLOS BARDEM ANA GIRARDOT
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DIMITRI RASSAM
presents
BENICIO DEL TORO JOSH HUTCHERSON
ESCOBAR:
PARADISE LOST
A FILM BY
ANDREA DI STEFANO
WITH
CLAUDIA TRAISAC BRADY CORBET CARLOS BARDEM ANA GIRARDOT
Runtime : 120 minutes
Distribution
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D O W N L O A D A L L P R E S S M AT E R I A L AT W W W. PAT H E I F I L M S . C H
SYNOPSIS
Nick thinks he has found paradise when he goes to join his brother in Colombia.
A turquoise lagoon, an ivory beach, perfect waves – it’s a dream for this young Canadian
surfer. Then he meets Maria, a stunning Colombian girl. They fall madly in love, and
everything is going great. That is, until Maria introduces Nick to her uncle: Pablo Escobar.
GENESIS OF THE PROJECT
Having started his career as an actor, Andrea Di Stefano had wanted to direct for a long time. The idea suddenly came to
life when one of his police officer friends told him a story. The story of a man who Pablo Escobar had entrusted with the
mission of hiding his treasure, before ordering his execution, wanting to keep the location secret.
Andrea Di Stefano has long had an
interest in the universe of organized
crime. “The codes are always the same:
you don’t hit women or children, the
family is sacred, and you cannot
betray it, on pain of losing the trust of
those around you.” Fascinated by the
episode of the treasure, and by this
criminal figure above the law, Andrea
Di Stefano started to research Pablo
Escobar and his life. “I think he is
the world’s most hated and admired
criminal, in almost equal measure.
Even today in Colombia, people pray
for him and think he was a good guy,
while a great many others consider
him a monster. The fact that he was
close to his family seemed an extra
area to explore. When you watch THE
GODFATHER, the key element resides
not in the fact that Marlon Brando and
Al Pacino eliminate people, but in what
they say to each other when they are at
home, sitting around the family table.
So I saw the possibility of structuring
a story around a character with a dual
personality, and the fact this was Pablo
Escobar made the subject even more
exciting. My instinct led me to observe
him, and in little touches, I wanted
to bring additional facets to feed the
plot.”
Andrea Di Stefano set to work
researching, digging up every scrap
of material, reading and watching
documentaries. “But in studying him,
as I approached the truth, it seemed
problematic to only show his dark
side, the criminal part of his life. I had
to concentrate on his private life. I had
so much information about him that
I ended up almost convinced that I
thought like him. Then I got the idea
of a second character making a rather
unusual journey, a sort of journey
inside Escobar’s mind. The narrative
would then become even more
complex from the point when this
character supposedly hid the treasure
and was named the target of Escobar’s
men.”
This was how the character of
Nick – played by Josh Hutcherson
– came into being. By introducing
this character, the film goes down a
different path to a traditional biopic
and becomes something else. “Each
time Escobar’s Machiavellism came
into play, I had a mental image of
a tsunami getting bigger, capable
of causing hundreds of deaths. He
could operate in a devastating way,
while at the same time touching a lot
of people around him. I have some
surfer friends, and I thought about
their attitude towards the elements,
towards life and the future, their fairly
relaxed way of looking at things. So
ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST recounts
two parallel destinies; two characters,
each with their own areas of dark and
light. I don’t like protagonists stamped
with purity. I find all internal conflict
interesting. Nick gradually becomes
aware of the monstrousness of his
girlfriend’s uncle. He understands that
he shares some responsibility for what
has gone on. I didn’t want to show
full-frontal violence and dead bodies.
I prefer the psychological conflict; it’s
more cinematographic.
By introducing this element at the
heart of a dark story, I wanted to evoke
Greek tragedy, mythology, the story of
Icarus, someone who thinks they are
living the dream, who approaches the
sun, and suddenly it all goes wrong as
a result of a grave error. On the pretext
of having fallen in love, and wanting to
follow his heart, the dreamer – whose
sole concern was his future and the
happiness that comes with it – finds
himself in the midst of an unexpected
situation. Gradually, he loses control,
then loses everything, until his life
becomes a nightmare. Pablo is a demigod in his country, Nick just a human
being, and he cannot do anything once
the divinity has decided to intervene.
His fate is turned upside-down.” As his
right-hand man says in the film: “No
one can escape Pablo Escobar.”
Andrea Di Stefano says he got the
idea for the character of Maria,
Escobar’s niece, from reading a book
by Pablo Escobar’s brother, Roberto.
“He describes the life of Perolindo.
Just before her uncle went to prison,
her boyfriend was killed in a bomb
explosion. She went to see Pablo and
slapped him in front of everyone. I was
drawn to such a character – a person
who is not afraid of a man like that. I
started to visualize that young woman,
convinced this was a way into a love
story.”
“Just before I started writing, I replayed
the film of Pablo Escobar’s life in order
to find the period best suited to the
film. The film begins at a time when
the Colombians viewed Pablo Escobar
When producer Dimitri Rassam was
handed the script of ESCOBAR:
PARADISE LOST, he was immediately
on board. “I knew he was an actor, that
it was his first film, and that the project
was ambitious. I loved the story and
the script, but at the same time, I knew
it was going to be complicated. But I
wanted to contribute to this adventure
and bring it to the screen.” Dimitri
Rassam was drawn by the various
aspects of the narrative. “ESCOBAR:
PARADISE LOST has all the elements
that people love in a movie. We
know that Escobar is one of the most
powerful drug traffickers, but you
never see any cocaine. It is above all
about family, the bonds that are forged,
as someone very rich, and very few
suspected him of dealing in cocaine,
especially since at the time that drug
was not considered as anything bad.
You could get a much longer jail term
being caught dealing marijuana. In
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, cocaine
was considered as medication. You
just had to chew the leaves to fight
malaria or a cold. It was quite usual.
I was fascinated reading an interview
of one of Pablo’s elder sisters. She
said that everyone had always chewed
the leaves. In her view, her brother
was just content exporting a national
product. For her, for almost everyone,
it was natural.”
Concerning the events and the dialog,
Andrea Di Stefano says that nothing in
the first draft of the script was invented.
“Everything that Pablo Escobar comes
out with was said at one point or
another in his life. That’s perhaps less
and the trajectory that can result from
that. At the end of our first meeting
with Andrea, I felt even more sure
about it. He had his film in his head; he
knew exactly the path he had to take
his characters along. Many projects
about Escobar have done the rounds,
but this one is quite unlike any of them.
And it was precisely this very different
approach that interested me. You’ve
got this incredible character, his insane
presence, but above all, it’s a terrific
story. Based on true events mixed with
fictional elements, it has that quality
which makes great tragedies.”
“As for the casting, I had no hesitation.
Benicio Del Toro had to play Pablo
the case concerning the veracity of his
words in the final version, since we
changed a few lines, but everything is
still based on true facts. For example,
I find the scene in which he finds
himself sitting in Bonnie and Clyde’s
car quite fascinating. He really did buy
the vehicle in which the outlaws were
gunned down. He always considered
himself a bandit. One of his men
recounted how he would sit for hours
in that car. Bonnie Parker was riddled
with bullets inside it, and I think when
sat in her place, he was thinking about
how they had been betrayed by a third
person. All of this served as a starting
point to bring him to life, to provide his
motivation, to render him active. It’s
funny because I started to add elements
to the story over the three years, and
then I wrote the script in three weeks,
20 full days, from morning to night.
I’ve never written so fast before.”
Escobar. There was no doubt about
it, it had to be him. If he had said no,
the film would not have been made.
It was important to have an imposing
Pablo, an actor who could command a
presence like that of Marlon Brando in
APOCALYPSE NOW. Even when he’s
not on-screen, you can feel him. The
mere mention of his name is enough;
he has that power. Josh Hutcherson’s
involvement was decisive in the
construction of the narrative. There
was no option, the alchemy between
the two of them was fundamental.”
Pablo Escobar and Benicio Del Toro
ended up blending into one in the
director’s mind. “As soon as I started
working with him, I no longer saw
Escobar, but Benicio. He is so generous
in everything he brings to the role, he
became my reality. In my eyes, he’s
more real than the real one. We talked
over an over, and we agreed on certain
precise points. It was important for
me that he should break away from
the real Escobar. Once the character
had taken shape on paper, Benicio
had to appropriate him. I’m grateful to
him; he allowed me to become better
by listening to him. I liked his ideas
because they surprised me.” Josh
Hutcherson became involved in the
project early on. To begin with, the
director had written the character as
someone older and more experienced,
until he met the actor. “As soon as I
met him, I knew he was the guy. Like
Benicio, he ended up totally melding
with the character of Nick. The fact
that in the past he had acted under the
direction of Benicio Del Toro (in 7 DAYS
IN HAVANA), was an advantage. Josh
sees Benicio like a father, similar to the
way Nick sees Pablo.”
The choice was more difficult for the
role of Maria. “To embody Maria, we
saw hundreds of actresses. Some of
them were unbelievably moving, but
they lacked a purity, a simplicity. For
her first audition, Claudia showed
up with a strange haircut, but she
was original, there was something
different about her, something radiant.
I immediately felt it was gold.” Andrea
Di Stefano has endless praise for
Claudia Traisac. Hailing from Madrid,
and only 20 years old, Claudia Traisac
is making her big-screen debut in
ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST.
For the role of Dylan, Nick’s brother,
he says, “Nick had to find himself
caught up in a dilemma, forced to
choose between two families. I like that
in Shakespeare’s theater, that clash
between two relatives, one saying to
the other, ‘You are perhaps making a
big mistake here.’ As often in real life,
you think you’re going in the right
direction, and despite warnings from
those around you, you rarely change
tack.” That was the logic behind
creating the character of Anne, Dylan’s
partner, played by Ana Girardot.
INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA
DI STEFANO
DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER
Born in Rome in 1972, Andrea Di Stefano grew up with Italian comedies and a popular kind of cinema. As a shy
teenager, he found his salvation on stage. “I started out in theater,” he says. “That helped me. I got on stage, I
acted, and when I came off, my shyness took over again.” Aged 20, he left for New York where he attended drama
school. In 1997, Marco Bellocchio offered him his first role in THE PRINCE OF HOMBURG.
Twelve months later, Dario Argento gave him a role in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Having returned to the
US, Julian Schnabel cast him opposite Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS.
In 2007, under the direction of Marina De Van, he starred alongside Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci in
DON’T LOOK BACK, which was screened in Cannes. NINE was released in 2009, and although Rob Marshall
did not give him a leading role, Andrea Di Stefano did not mind. He was already thinking about the story of
ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST. “I’ve made some good films and had some good roles, but in the end, I realized I
wanted something else”, he says.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO GET
BEHIND THE CAMERA ?
I’ve always been interested in
storytelling. It’s in me. Whereas the
same cannot be said for directing.
I’d never even thought about doing
my first film. I just had a story to
offer. I can only transcribe what
I see in my head. In my view, the
director reproduces a sort of dream
world of his own creation. I see the
most beautiful shots and the best
staging in my dreams. I try to bring
together the images, the scenes
and the emotions in the service of
the story, using my experiences as
an actor and my cinematographic
tastes. I’ve always loved cinema,
I’m a fan of SUNRISE by Murnau,
of 8½ by Fellini, and all Kurosawa’s
work. It’s no doubt my sole passion
since childhood. The shooting was
not easy, but everyone gave the best
of themselves. My obsession was
finding the right balance between
the emotions and what was going
on in front of the camera, so the
audience could feel the honesty
in the scene, as conveyed by the
actors.
HOW DID YOU HANDLE THE
ACTORS ?
As an actor myself, though not
exactly Marlon Brando, I was
always a bit frustrated because I had
the impression that directors do not
always feel our concerns. The actor
arrives with his emotional baggage,
tensions and expectations, and the
director must try to do his best to
put him at his ease so he can give
everything he’s got when the time
comes. Once the scene is done,
you must make him think that he
has done the maximum when he
goes back to the dressing room.
That’s what I try to do. I listened
to everyone’s ideas, even if I didn’t
use them. Movies are a matter of
teamwork. I have the skill of reading
a script and transposing the story
visually, and of imaging how I can
improve it. I’ve always discussed
things with directors, so why not
do the same with the actors I am
directing?
DID THE EDITING SEEM LIKE
WRITING A NEW VERSION OF
YOUR STORY ?
It was another take on it. I had
heard other directors say that
cutting things out can be hard.
I found myself facing different
problems, but I always kept the
story in mind. That was paramount.
It had to immerse the spectator in
an atmosphere, and not allow him
or her to awaken from it.
WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES ?
It’s funny, but I only started to see
the beauty of an image quite late
on. I became a passionate opera
fan at 19. When I started in theater,
I discovered that the stage and the
power of the narrative, combined
with music, can inspire deep
emotions. That gave me a sort of
direction. I’ve always been drawn to
cinema built around great stories.
My influence is Italian, of course,
the cinema of the 1950-60s, but I
also really like Japanese cinema.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE
AUDIENCES TO FEEL WHEN THEY
COME OUT AFTER WATCHING
ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST ?
I think people go to the cinema
because it’s the closest they get to
their dreams. The surprising closeups, the landscapes, the people who
express things that you understand
later, the music, the images, the
sound, the shadows, that’s what
people are looking for in a movie
theater. And that’s what TV cannot
provide. I’d like the audience to feel
empathy for Nick and Maria, but also
for Pablo. During the final scene, I’d
like them to have pity for this man.
DESPITE THE HORRORS HE
COMMITS ?
There’s always the question of how
you can recount the positive side of
such a horrible, evil character. I’m
not a documentarian. My job is just
to tell a story, to make a movie with,
at the end, a pure philosophical
reading of this man. His violent acts
speak for him.
THE DIRECTOR SEEN BY HIS ACTORS
For Benicio Del Toro, Andrea Di Stefano’s enthusiasm is contagious. “Since he is an actor himself, he’s aware
of the pressure we put on ourselves in front of the camera. There’s a lot of tension when you’re about to be in
a scene. The most important thing is precisely to relieve this stress and help the actors to relax. He himself is
relaxed, but he knows what he wants. It’s a pleasure working with him. He knows the elements that make up his
film; a love story, a story of family, and in the middle of that, the baddie against the good guy. This film has lots
of audience-pleasing elements. It could attract fans of mainstream films and those of more independent pictures.
I was impressed by Andrea, and let’s not forget the fact that he also wrote the story. Some screenwriters are rigid,
whereas he is open to the idea of changing pieces of dialog, or adding things. Andrea wasn’t against that, which
is very pleasant.”
Josh Hutcherson: “Andrea adores putting everything into the image. He’s doing his cinema and leaves his camera
to tell his story. Many actor-directors get obsessed by the acting, the performance, and internalize everything.
He left us a certain freedom. He and his director of photography succeeded in obtaining the image they wanted
so that it was always moving the story along. He likes playing around with dialog. He understands actors, and
when you are in the moment, and you feel something, he’s not afraid of improvisation. To him, the script is the
literature of cinema. At times, we had a lot of lines to say, but we cut it down to three words, because that made
the scene stronger and gave it authenticity. He’s not hung up on words, but focuses on the story“.
INTERVIEW WITH BENICIO
DEL TORO
PA B L O E S C O B A R
DID YOU HAVE ANY
RESERVATIONS BEFORE YOU
ACCEPTED THE ROLE ?
There are always hesitations, but
this story has numerous dimensions
and I was very excited by the idea of
portraying this particular version of
Escobar.
WHICH SIDE OF PABLO ESCOBAR
DO WE SEE IN THIS FILM ?
I had to read up on his life, because
before, I only knew the superficial
side. It’s important to know that this
film doesn’t tell the story of his life;
these are scraps of his existence told
through the eyes of a young man who’s
going out with his niece. You discover
several facets: his family life, his time
as a politician, you get a glimpse of
his cruelty. I think the script tries to
remain fairly faithful to many elements
about Escobar.
DID YOU ALSO TRY TO REMAIN
AS FAITHFUL AS POSSIBLE
TOWARDS HIM, OR WAS THERE
ROOM FOR INVENTION ?
There was room for invention.
Although the key parts are based on
true facts, the story remains fictional.
You try to gather as much information
as possible concerning Escobar, to see
how he behaved, study the archive
images, but whether you want to or
not, all this material ends up becoming
a movie character. With Andrea, we
knew we could take a few liberties.
the best of yourself, every time it’s
demanding and stressful, sometimes
it’s depressing, and from time to time,
it’s exciting. You just hope to work with
good people and to have a little fun.
HOW DOES THE ABUNDANCE
OF MATERIAL, OF BOOKS AND
DOCUMENTARIES HELP TO
CONSTRUCT THE CHARACTER ?
IN YOUR VIEW, WHERE DOES
PABLO ESCOBAR’S STRONG
SENSE OF FAMILY COME FROM ?
If you have a precise idea of the
character and the director or
screenwriter have another, or if you
have any doubts, you can always refer
back to the source material. All the
documents then become arbitrators:
they help you decide.
DID IT HELP HAVING PLAYED
CHE GUEVARA ?
In a way, yes. But the film CHE was
more based on his life. Everything was
true, which was a bit constraining.
With CHE, it was as if you had to follow
a path. Here, with Pablo, there was a bit
more flexibility in the interpretation.
Acting doesn’t only consist of learning
your lines and throwing yourself in;
it’s a bit more complicated than that.
It’s above all about hard work. Before
the shoot, someone asked me if this
film was going to be easier than the
other one. In my view, they are both
unique, and if you want to try and give
His mother was a major influence on
him, as were his brother and sisters.
There’s a Latin side in the importance
of family. His father and mother were
present when he was a child. He
doesn’t come from a broken family, and
wasn’t an abandoned child. He wasn’t
raised in comfortable surroundings,
his family was poor. He had a sense
of family during his childhood which
he kept throughout his life. In a way,
that was his weak spot. What’s more,
that was his downfall. He was always
talking to his family, which allowed
him to be tracked and located.
WHY WAS HE SO PROTECTIVE
TOWARDS HIS NIECE ?
It’s a matter of family. He feels a bit like
a father to her. He just wants to make
sure she doesn’t suffer. He is protective,
not possessive. It’s only at the end of
the film that he becomes jealous of
Nick, fearing that he’s trying to distance
Maria. He creates the world that he
wants for each member of his family.
They can live according to his rules, but
if they want to break them and go their
own way, he won’t tolerate that.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING
WITH JOSH HUTCHERSON ?
Josh belongs to that category of
sincere, genuine actors. He strives
to justify things by building on the
reality, the period, the location,
the character. Not being greatly
expansive, he knows what I mean
when I only say half a sentence. We
had established this communication,
this communion on the segment of
film I made (7 DAYS IN HAVANA).
That was one of the reasons why I was
excited at the idea of making this film.
He’s one of the young actors whose
work I appreciate.
JOSH HUTCHERSON
NICK
THE CHARACTER
Nick is Canadian. He left his country to join his brother in Colombia. Josh Hutcherson says, “Nick never had any
great dreams of his own. He’s intelligent but imbued with a certain pessimism. I like this character that falls in
love and finds himself dealing with a feeling he’s never known before. To begin with, Maria and he don’t speak
the same language. Yet the mutual understanding is immediate. Having found a woman who’s ready to fight for
him, he allows himself to be guided by his love for her, to the point where he is blinded by it. When he comes to
live in the hacienda, he discovers the way Pablo behaves towards his family, his generosity, the parties he throws
for everyone. He can only see this man as someone good. That’s what makes the character interesting. This
duality was common knowledge. He was so good, and did so many things for his community, and at the same
time, he was such a psychologically twisted individual.”
“The cocktail based on the suspense of a thriller, added to the romantic side with its invisible forces which
guide the story, and the presence of Escobar’s character, add up to an attractive package.” He was drawn to this
approach of making a love film wrapped in an action movie. In his view, ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST, doesn’t
belong to any genre. Josh Hutcherson says he feels close to Nick. “In the sense that everyone, at a given moment
in their life, has perhaps been blinded by love and allowed themselves be drawn in until they lose control.”
ON HIS CO-STARS
“Benicio Del Toro is the kind of actor who immerses himself deep in his characters. On set, he is all about
improvisation, focusing on the moment. He feels the scene, and is always looking to play with it. Not always
knowing where you’re going increases your energy. Benicio is one of the greats.” Josh Hutcherson said he was
impressed with Claudia Traisac, given that it was her first film. “I don’t know how she always managed to find
just the right note. What’s more, she’s very funny.” He says he learnt a lot playing the role of Nick. “It’s a very new
type of character for me, in any case a more mature role. That’s what most attracted me to it.”
CLAUDIA TRAISAC
MARIA
A modern, dynamic woman, Maria
works in a health clinic alongside men
and is afraid of nothing. Claudia Traisac
sees her as a person “who thinks she
can change the world and the situation
in Colombia. She’s blocked inside, a
prisoner of her situation, but meeting
Nick has allowed her to open up. She’s
a good person, one of the few in the
film. I like Maria, I liked waking up every
morning in her skin. Regarding her
uncle, she starts off thinking he’s a good
man, the benefactor of Colombia. As
someone who is always honest, she finds
herself gradually immersed in a world
where everything becomes a lie. I think
the Colombian people are like her; they
have experienced the same thing. He was
their hero. To begin with, they saw him as
a fantastic guy, he was so generous. But
they ended up realizing to what extent he
had ravaged the country.”
DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING IN
COMMON WITH MARIA?
“Actually, I think I am quite like her.
That’s maybe one of the reasons why my
name appears on the credits! (laughs).
Of course we’re the same: I discovered
her through her struggles.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN
YOU FIRST READ THE SCRIPT?
“When I first read it, with my father,
we both thought it was amazing, that
it would make a real movie. I was won
over from the first page. You can tell
that Andrea wrote it with passion, with
love.” She did two auditions then left her
country for the first time to meet Andrea
Di Stefano. They instantly connected. But
it took two more auditions to convince
the producers. “After the last session,
I left and I switched off my cellphone.
I didn’t want to know. I was with my
friends, and my father and mother, who
were all begging me to turn it back on. I
did so during the night and found I had
more than a dozen calls from Panama.
I called Andrea back and asked him to
repeat the phrase, ‘OK , you’re Maria!’ I
was over the moon.”
PABLO ESCOBAR
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born
on 1 December 1949. His father was a
peasant, his mother a schoolteacher.
Poverty was his daily bread. He and
his six brothers and sisters grew up in
a house without electricity or running
water. As a teenager, he started to
steal cars and gravestones. Aged
20, to earn more money he began
working for a smuggler, who pushed
him into ever more serious crimes
such as kidnapping. Then came drug
trafficking. “I was young,” he said. “I
wanted to live and I was ambitious.
I didn’t know anything about drug
smuggling. That’s when I met a young
gringo in a disco in Medellin. He had a
plane and wanted to buy some cocaine.
I made my decision. We started selling
him merchandise. There was little risk,
it was profitable. What’s more, you
didn’t have to kill anyone, which was
important for me.”
Pablo Escobar really got going in the
business in 1975. The following year,
he was arrested in possession of 18
kilos of cocaine. Once he got out of
jail, he moved his operation up a gear.
He started hiding the drugs in tires
and pioneered the use of “mules”.
The money rolled in. He gradually
took control of the drug trade and
neutralized the representatives of the
authorities, either by bribing them, or
by eliminating them if necessary. At
the start of the 1980s, he took over the
Medellin cartel. In 1982, he was elected
as a liberal parliamentarian, but he
was rejected by the political caste and
embarked on a campaign of terror.
He feared no one, especially not
judges or journalists, and the myths
surrounding him began to take shape.
In 1989, he had three presidential
candidates assassinated. That same
year, he was ranked in seventh place
among the world’s richest people.
His business was bringing in more
than 30 billion dollars a year. Pablo
Escobar became a god in the eyes of
those he helped with his money; he
had more than 500 houses built, along
with hospitals and schools. To others,
he was a threat and a criminal. The
killings were counted in thousands.
His network, the biggest at the time,
stretched from Peru and Bolivia, and
was flooding the markets in the US,
Europe and Asia. At its peak, his
organization was exporting 15 tons of
cocaine a day.
In 1991, he agreed to go into custody
in exchange for Colombia refusing his
extradition to the US. But he wasn’t
behind bars for long, escaping the
following year. A new wave of violence
followed. His foot soldiers, known as
los sicaros, were said to number 3,000.
That year, 6,662 people were killed in
the streets of Medellin, and hundreds
more disappeared. The Colombian
authorities, with the help of the CIA,
the FBI and all the US federal security
services, embarked on a manhunt.
More than 20,000 searches were made,
more than 2,000 police officers and
soldiers were involved. On 2 December
1993, the boss of the cartel was located
and shot by marksmen. Millions
followed his funeral. His organization
disappeared in 1995. Twenty years
after his death, his elder sister asked
for forgiveness for not acting earlier.
Today, his tomb is still a place of
worship, visited by tourists.
WHO IS THE REAL PABLO
ESCOBAR, IN THE DIRECTOR’S
VIEW?
Andrea Di Stefano says, “Everyone’s
heard of Pablo Escobar, but no one
really knows who he is. In telling the
story of my film, I discovered that
everyone I spoke to knew nothing
of how he was a politician before
becoming a criminal. Everyone
thought he was a dead ringer for
Scarface, which he wasn’t. He was like
a big teddy bear. Everyone thought he
was hugely rich and did bizarre, funny
things. He went to Las Vegas, met
Frank Sinatra, was nuts about Elvis
and was always performing his songs.
He supported a soccer team, and sang
opera. At the same time, he was one
of the most dangerous criminals in
history. He paid $5,000 for anyone who
killed a cop, he blew up a plane with 140
people on board, and planted a bomb
in a building right opposite a toy store.
He did monstrous acts and his family
talk about him as someone exceptional.
His home, called Hacienda Napoles,
in an echo of Michael Jackson’s
Neverland, had its own zoo. Located at
Puerto Triunfo, it was an amusement
park where he personally conducted
visits for local schools so that everyone
could see what he’d built for his own
children, and so the school kids could
have fun. He adored Disney cartoons,
especially Mowgli in THE JUNGLE
BOOK. He’s a fascinating character,
but a psychotic. It’s funny, because
when the FBI drew up his profile at the
end of the 1980s, his unusual behavior
preventing them from classifying him
in the organized crime boss category,
so they catalogued him as a serial
killer. From my point of view, the most
fearsome people first arrive with a big
smile, and to begin with I didn’t sense
just how dangerous he could be. My
aim wasn’t to make a documentary, but
to stay true to who he was as a whole
person. Yes, he was a funny guy, but
that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t also
be a monster.”
CAST
PABLO ESCOBAR
NICK
MARIA
DYLAN
DRAGO
ANNE
BENICIO DEL TORO
JOSH HUTCHERSON
CLAUDIA TRAISAC
BRADY CORBET
CARLOS BARDEM
ANA GIRARDOT
CREW
Director
Andrea Di Stefano
Writer
Andrea Di Stefano
Director of Photography Luis Sansans, A.M.C
Editor
Maryline Monthieux
David Brenner
Set Designer Carlos Conti
Costume Designer Marylin Fitoussi
Original Music Max Richter
First Assistant Director James Canal
Director of Production Bruno Vatin
Produced by Dimitri Rassam
Co-produced by Romain Le Grand
Frédérique Dumas
Miguel Angel Faura
Isaac Torras Molist
Sylvain Goldberg
Serge de Poucques
Adrian Politowski
Gilles Waterkeyn
Executive Producers Benicio del Toro
Josh Hutcherson
Moritz Borman
© Photos
Mika Cotellon
©2014 Chapter 2 – Pathé Production – Orange Studio – Roxbury– Paradise Lost Film A.I.E – Nexus Factory – Jouror Developpement
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