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Presents: HIDALGO The Untold Story A film by Antonio SERRANO Synopsis Hidalgo, in his cell at the Military Hospital of Chihuahua, recalls various periods in his life, mainly the time he worked as a parish priest in San Felipe Torres Mochas. It was there that he came into contact with the poorer classes and the idea of emancipation began to grow in his mind. He translated and staged "Tartuffe" by Molière, he fell in love with Josefa Quintana and gave up the ecclesiastical life for a period of time. Technical credits A FILM BY Antonio Serrano SCREENPLAY BY Leo Mendoza and Antonio Serrano PRODUCTION Luis Urquiza and Lourdes García (México). José María Morales and Sancho Gracia (Spain) CO-PRODUCERS Inna Payán and Alejandro Palma ARTISTIC DESIGN Brigitte Broch COSTUME DESIGN Leticia Palacios PHOTOGRAPHY Emiliano Villanueva EDITOR Mario Sandoval y Antonio Serrano POSTPRODUCTION Tlacateotl Mata SOUND Antonio Diego SOUND DESIGN Miguel Ángel Molina MUSIC BY Alejandro Giacoman PRODUCTION DESIGN Brigitte Broch PRODUCTION COMPANIES Astillero Films, Wanda Films, Lusa Films and TVE Technical details Type of production: feature-length film Year of production: 2010 Production year: 2009/2010 Country: Mexico Duration: 100 min Genre: Drama Language: Spanish Format: 35mm & colour Audio Format: Dolby Surround Locations San Luis Potosi (Hacienda La Corcovada, Pozo del Carmen, Real de Catorce) Federal District (Museo Casa de la Bola) Michoacán (Patzcuaro, Cuitzeo, Acutizio de Canje, Morelia) Guanajuato (Hacienda Jaral de Berrio) Cast HIDALGO Demián Bichir JOSEFA Ana De La Reguera DAMA VILLAVICENCIO Mar Saura AMADITA Cecilia Suárez JOSÉ SANTOS Miguel Rodarte MARIANO Flavio Medina BEATA DOMÍNGUEZ Carolina Politi MORELOS Andrés Palacios BISHOP Juan Carlos Colombo ALLENDE Raúl Méndez MANUELA PICHARDO Silvia Eugenia Derbéz ÁNGEL ABELLA Pablo Viña ECCLESIASTICAL JUDGE José Antonio Barón SHERIFF Juan Luis Garrido Director's Biography: Antonio Serrano Of Mexican birth, but of Spanish nationality, Antonio Serrano studied communication at the Ibero-American University and then theatre studies in Mexico, England, Denmark, France and Italy. For the theatre, he has written and directed his own productions, including "A destiempo," "Doble Cara," "Café Americano" and "Sexo, pudor y lágrimas." By other playwrights, he has produced various works, such as "Molière", "Sexo, drogas y rocanrol," "Por amor al arte" ... He has directed more than five hundred hours of television, including three of the most successful hits on Mexican television, namely "Nada personal" (1996), "Mirada de mujer" (1997) and "La vida en el espejo" (1999), all produced by Argos Televisión. In the world of cinema, he made his debut as a director and scriptwriter with "Sexo, pudor y lágrimas" ("Sex, Shame & Tears"). He then went on to direct "La Hija del Caníbal" ("Lucía, Lucía") and the segment "Vida Express" from the film, "Cero y van cuatro." He is currently working on three stories: "Dead End," "Mientras Vivo" and "Pequeñas Certezas." For television he is working on the series "Códigos privados." He has received numerous awards for his work as a director, playwright and scriptwriter throughout his career, such as the Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of the Film Arts and Sciences. A Few Words from Antonio Serrano Some say that the well-known image of Miguel Hidalgo that is printed on one thousand peso notes is not his face at all, but that of a Belgian priest whose portrait was commissioned by Maximilian of Hapsburg so that Mexicans would have a picture of their hero of the independence movement. They also say that certain features were deliberately chosen when portraying Hidalgo, such as his bald patch, given that baldness was believed to be a sign of intelligence back in the 1840's. The portrait that we all know today shows an old man with a sweet expression, a face guaranteed to command the respect of almost anybody. Who could doubt a wise old man with an expression like that? And it is this grey and tarnished image that Leo Mendoza's script rubs out with unique relish in order to reveal a Hidalgo who is much more real. In addition to relating a series of little-known periods in his life, the script reveals a fascinating man whose character featured both light and darker sides. He was an upright and tenacious scholar, but he also had a more irreverent and rebellious side to his character, a much more youthful and less serene personality, one given to music, dancing, reading and the theatre. In short, he was a human being, one quite unlike that legendary picture of the benevolent and heroic old man portrayed on the peso bills. His taste for theatre and, above all, the plays of Molière, link his life with that of the great French master of irony and irreverence, who was able to portray the society of his age in order to help bring about change. Hidalgo also changed society, in his capacity as the actor priest of Dolores and of Torres Mochas, the other town where he established his home, which he referred to as "Little France."”. To bring Hidalgo and Molière together in a film is to unite the legend with the man and the theatre with the cinema, two disciplines that both served to liberate ideas and reflect the reality of their times. In this respect, both Jean Baptiste Poquelin, "Molière", and Miguel Gregorio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mondarte, served as the mirrors of their respective times. MARGINAL NOTE: At the age of twenty-five I dreamed of becoming an actor. I took a trip around Italy and signed on for a course on the Commedia del'Arte, that ancient Italian genre in which Arlecchino, Pantalone, Francescina, Il Capitano and an endless array of masked types and characters recreate a series of complicated and politically incorrect injustices and adventures through improvisation. This experience enabled me to join a company specialising in this genre, known as the Tag Theatre of Venice, which I accompanied as an actor for a number of years, travelling around the different streets, squares and theatres in the towns and cities where we presented our shows. It was in this company that I became familiar with the work of Gozzi and Molière. Years later, back in Mexico, Sabina Berman invited me to direct "Molière," a splendid work she had written that brought the theatre's two rival genres face to face: comedy and tragedy. The play represented a duel to the death between the two most important French playwrights of the eighteenth century: the light-hearted Molière against the pompous and solemn Racine. And when I received that invitation I felt an intense spark of excitement, not only because I was going to tackle that passionate and ancient war between two genres, but because I would relive all of the experiences I had enjoyed with that vital, original and nomadic form of theatre that I had discovered as a young man with the Italian company. As this story of Hidalgo and Molière lies in my hands today, I feel the same sense of excitement. This is not only because I can once again set up a platform in the middle of the street and play around with a type of theatre that challenges the vices of society and its power structures through comedy, but also because that discipline that I love so much, theatre, has also offered me the opportunity to communicate directly by means of another discipline that I picked up later on in life: cinema. And it may be just a whimsical idea, but could it have been this form of theatre that served as one of the most decisive influences in encouraging Hidalgo to challenge the ruling classes of his age and change the country? PRODUCTION INFORMATION: Antonio Serrano is one of the most renowned stage directors in Mexico. He has also enjoyed considerable success within the world of cinema. He directed the stage version of "Sexo, pudor y lágrimas," a work he wrote himself and which enjoyed considerable success with both the public and the critics. He later brought this work to the cinema, a work entitled "Sex, Shame & Tears," which was one of the highest ever-grossing films in the history of Mexican cinema. Among his stage productions we might mention "Molière", a work by Sabina Berman in which the French comic playwright comes face to face with Racine (both dramatists whom Hidalgo brought to the stage in the late eighteenth century). The work ran for a number of months and constituted one of the grand theatrical events of the year 1998. It was this considerable knowledge of the worlds of cinema and theatre, not to mention directing and performing (an essential aspect of the script), that led Astillero Producciones to think of Antonio. About the proyect A collection of 8 films that illustrate the work and thoughts of the most relevant figures of Latin America’s emancipation. Their stories will not only include historical facts but will also capture the human side and the ideology of each liberator. The word Liberators is owed to them not only because they fought for the independence of their countries. Their revolutionary activity transcended to the liberation of humanity, which began in their own nations. Each hero shared a common idea that was to create one great American motherland. This idea was based on two concepts that echo the news, in our globalized world, today: Fraternity amongst people and free trade with the rest of the world, founded on material, political, social and cultural progress. Their dreams and failures as well as their defeats and triumphs were not always compensated. Yet their fight has left a legacy of hope in a more equal world. Through both their skills and their errors we will witness the making of the American diary. The characters that we have chosen are closely linked to Spain. Not only due to political circumstances or to their common language but also because of the ideas they promoted on both sides of the Atlantic and their work, which was and still is decisive for our history. Each film will not only convey the historical facts and biographies but will penetrate in each character, bringing us closer to them on an emotional level. Each story will be based on the following: Literature. The point of view of a writer of the time Popular legends on the character that has endured generation after generation A possible fictional situation they might have lived – always based on objective facts Their own writings Elements of fiction will be used to tell the life and thoughts of each character so this collection of films will lean more toward drama rather than a historical documentary, thus creating 8 feature length films. Each film will be: Shot in the country of origin of each liberator Acted by professional actors Shot by the best directors in each country Wanda Films (José María Morales) and Lusa Films (Sancho Gracia) will be the producers together with co-producer Television Española, who will premiere each film in Spain on television. In Latin American and the rest of the world, each film will be distributed in cinemas as well as all the main national and panAmerican television channels.