Daniela Leyva at La Mitad del Continente (“The Howls”), Andrea Toca at Mexico’s Un Beso Cine (“Human Animals”) and Diana Bustamante at Burning SAS (“Buy Me a Gun”) have teamed to co-produce the vampire drama “The Day is Long and Dark,” the eighth feature from one of Mexico’s most important directors, Julio Hernández Cordón.
“Working with Julio has always been an enthralling experience. With this film there is also a mixture of things that interests me on a narrative level. Julio’s cinema is always a welcomed surprise,” producer and artistic director of the Cartagena International Film Festival Diana Bustamante told Variety.
From his first film “Gasolina” – winner as a project at San Sebastian’s work in progress section in 2007 and one year later at its Horizontes showcase – Hernández’s features have played at festivals including Locarno, Mar del Plata (“I Promise You Anarchy”), San Sebastian (“Buy Me a Gun,” “Anarchy”) and Torino (“Marimbas from Hell”) among many others.
“This is the first film in which Julio ventures into genre cinema, where he will break its rules and codes. The film is also a family melodrama, so we hope that we’ll be able to reach a wider audience, besides that of the festivals, which has proven to be enthusiastic,” said lead producer Leyva.
Starring Francisco Barreiro (“Here Comes the Devil”), “The Day is Long and Dark” follows Ariel, a film director –also a vampire,– who discovers that his daughters inherited his monstrous condition. Traveling through several film festivals, Ariel will have to teach her daughters how to control their predatory instincts.
Director Hernández Cordón explained to Variety that his first incursion into horror cinema is a pretext to make “a bloody but extremely intimate film which tackles the family bonds with teenagers who don’t want to be vampires because they can’t control their instincts and are afraid to attack their mother.”
Hernández said that feature will also be a tribute to Mexico City, and he pointed out that every sequence “will be a piece of video art, inspired by video art pioneer Bill Viola’s works and contemporary art. For instance, I will use TikTok to portray female characters. I think the tone of the project is close to that of Claire Denis’s ‘Trouble Every Day,’” he added.
María Secco (“The Golden Cage,” “I Promise You Anarchy”) is also attached, and will serve as d.p.
