PANAMA CITY — Argentine actor Ricardo Darin, currently attending the 8th IFF Panama for the fest’s opening film, “An Unexpected Love,” is prepping a new film, “Heroic Losers,” (La Odisea de los Giles) about an agricultural cooperative in Argentina in 2001, to be directed by Sebastián Borensztein, with whom Darin previously worked on “Koblic” (2016) and “Chinese Take-Out” (2011).
“Love” was the first production from Darin’s new production shingle, Kenya Films, founded in 2018 with his son, Chino Darin.
“Heroic Losers” is their second production. The film is about a group of people from a chic neighborhood of Buenos Aires, who have an idea to create an agricultural cooperative, in 2001, at a very difficult moment in Argentine history, with rampant inflation and banking controls.
Darin plays a retired ex-football player who lives in a small town near Buenos Aires, Villa Alsina, who has the original idea to create the cooperative. Darin explained at Panama that some of the themes addressed in the new film about a cooperative is also linked to his view on how a film production should be organized:
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“I believe that the key question when making a film is having a good story, with a beginning, middle and end. And I think that in Latin America there are many stories to be told about how people struggle to attain their dreams.”
He added: “But you also need a good production team, a bit like in an agricultural cooperative. You need intelligent people who are all focused on the key elements. I think it’s very important that the crew eats and sleeps well and is happy and feels part of the project. That the crew members don’t feel like mere hired hands, with a divorce between the different departments.”
Darin said he prefers small crews who are dedicated to the project and often tries to bring the technicians he trusts to each project. “Sometimes in a film an actor is closer to the technicians than his fellow actors. For example, on several occasions it has been the focus puller – who is standing right next to me, physically closer than the cinematographer, director or my fellow actor – who has said: ‘Let’s do another take, because you can do better.’”
He said that “Heroic Losers” is about a moment of profound conflict between the members of the cooperative, who then try to restore its unity.
Darin is also considering several projects that he may direct, after his 2007 debut pic, “The Signal.”
Alongside his film projects, Darin is prepping a two-month tour of Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Spain with a theatre production of Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage” directed by Norma Aleandro, in which he will co-star with Andrea Pietra.