Interviews

A Contrast of 'Darkness': Passion and Emotions

By Marcos Bernal-Salas

Monday, May 7, 2007

The Tribeca Film festival has come to a close. Two weeks of great films and stories from around the world, riveting documentaries and impressive short films. One of those surprising films is ‘Towards Darkness’ (Hacia La Oscuridad) directed by Antonio Negret that had its World Premiere at Tribeca this year. The young and talented director starts off his feature film debut with a thrilling and mesmerizing story that will have audiences glued to their seats.

‘Towards Darkness’ is a complex film in execution and an ambitious project to tackle that any Hollywood studio might not be able to accomplish. They might be able to do well with the action sequences but lack the human side of the story that Negret and company bring forth in the film with such a unique intuition and realism. The film takes on a critical and troublesome subject that affects the world; kidnapping. ‘Towards Darkness’ delve into the human characteristic of a ransom kidnapping taking the audience into different points of view; from the kidnapping victim and his family to the perpetrators. ‘While kidnapping for ransom is plaguing my hometown of Colombia, I have always had a deep and profound love of the country and its people’, said Antonio Negret about embarking in such a personal journey with the film.

Jose Gutierrez (Roberto Urbina) is a young Colombian that has been studying in the United States and decides to return home to visit his parents. Alejandra Borrero and Tony Plana, better known for his role in ‘Ugly Betty’, play the grief-stricken parents that negotiate their son’s kidnapping and struggle to understand the reason behind in what will become a terrible event in their lives. Both Borrero and Plana play the roles with great easiness and excellence commanding each scene with different range but equal grand emotions.

America Ferrera, who stars and executive produces the film, is Jose’s former lover Luiza whom he tries to rekindle a forgotten passion with. She becomes a necessary character to the story that is able to show and expose the softer side of Luis but also of the Colombian setting. Not everything here is grit, crimes and drugs. Negret excels at contrasting the rough reality with the beauty of the city and people around it. The same can be said about all the characters in ‘Towards Darkness’ though each one is different from one another their actions or who they have become are a result of a tragic consequence in their life; and the actors behind these roles are just as remarkable.

Remarkable also defines the behind the scenes and production situations that Negret had to overcome. In just 23 days, he had to rise above heat exhaustion, a demanding shooting schedule and an insurance company that called for the film to be shot in Panama. Any director would find these more than frustrating but Antonio Negret’s passion and commitment to the project kept him going open to the possibilities and creative exchange within the production. He also had a very clear idea of the film; that at no point it would become a cliché view of Colombia; which comes across brilliantly throughout the film.

He is also such a surprise as a director. It’s difficult to find someone with such passion and drive, at such an early time in his career. Of course, Antonio Negret is an astonishing young man that lived all around Latin America, with his Ecologist parents, exposed to the different stories and point of views of cultures and people. ‘Toward Darkness’ is a gut-wrenching thriller that shares on some of the cinematic ideas that have influenced Negret such as those of Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick and also an intuitive story telling similar to that of Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu. Renowned directors that Antonio respects and looks upon to as a young filmmaker beginning in what it will become a great career in which no sooner than later he will be seen as renowned himself.

Visit the film’s website for more information on the film and other screening dates.