Madrid-based Alvaro Brechner, “one of the leading South American cinematic talents to emerge in the last decade,” diverse He wrote in a review of his film “A Twelve-Year Night,” which was selected in Venice, and is accompanied by the directing of “Mägo de Oz, La Película,” a wide-ranging biopic of the Spanish folk metal band.
Behind the Cannes Critics’ Week bestseller “Bad Day to Go Fishing,” the best-selling “Mr Kaplan” and the Venice selection “A Twelve-Year Night,” all Oscar entries from Uruguay Brechner will begin principal photography on March 17. Filming took place in Madrid, the Canary Island of Gran Canaria and Mexico City with an international Spanish-speaking cast, including Spaniard Adrián Lastra (“Velvet”), Roberto Alamo (“Police Riot”), Mexican Michelle Reno (“Malvada”) and Michael Ronda (“ “Quando Si Joven”).
The film is produced by up-and-coming Spanish company Eterno Island Pictures, a subsidiary of El Sueño Eterno Pictures (“El Largo Viaje”). The film is written by Sofia Cuenca, a co-writer of “My Fault,” which Prime Video announced shortly after its 2023 launch as the most popular non-English film ever on the service.
Mägo de Oz has published more than 20 albums, selling over 2 million copies and earning a Latin Grammy nomination.
“From its humble beginnings in the 1980s to international consecration, the film delves into the creative tensions, triumphs, controversies, and defeats that shaped its core,” the film’s synopsis reads. She added: “It will also explore the inner dynamics of the band, the unbreakable devotion of its fans, and show how its music has influenced entire generations.”
Founded by drummer Txus di Fellatio (played by Lastra) in 1988, Mägo de Oz combines heavy metal with Celtic folklore, and was joined by violinist Mohamed “Moha” (Guillermo Furiasi) in 1992 and Fernando Ponce . De Leon (Mark Parejo, “Acacia 38”) stepped up in 1999 to play flute, whistles, gaita and bagpipes.
Also striking is the sheer number of musicians who have passed through the ranks of the bands. A written statement released Tuesday lists 10 key actors. Alamo plays Spain-based Chilean producer and musician Big Simon, who was a crucial influence on Mago de Oz in his early years. Renaud Lemmens Patricia Tapia, her greatest vocalist; Ronda will play Frank, “whose creativity was crucial to the distinctive voice,” the statement said.
“The project represents a before and after for us,” said producer Patricia Gonzalez, who is also CEO of El Sueño Eterno Pictures. She added: “This feature is the result of a comprehensive immersion in the band’s world, in an attempt to capture and present its legendary music and the essence of the band members to the big screen.”
Prep conducted “meticulous interviews with group members, in-depth study of the publisher and the band’s artistic development and meticulous production design,” Gonzalez said.
The film’s soundtrack will be composed by Txus di Fellatio and Mohamed who will also create original scores for the film and supervise the inclusion of the band’s greatest hits on the soundtrack.
Pedro “Perry” Diaz serves as executive producer. “As a member of the large Mago de Oz family, it has always been a privilege to be able to help spread rock culture halfway around the world,” he said.
diverse I spoke to Brechner about “The Wizard of Oz.”
What attracted you to the film “Mägo de Oz”?
Challenge. It’s a big project that takes many things into account and it’s the first film from a script I didn’t write, which raises the question of how I can incorporate my own sensibility and sense of drama and humour. And the group’s energy — the nostalgia gave me goosebumps and made me stomach upset — took me back to my 15-year-old self, a fan of heavy rock, to a world where I was playing music at the highest level, proving how much my father could play. patience.
The band witnessed multiple iterations and conflicts….
Yes, apart from capturing their energy, what attracts me most is how deeply human, so unique, and complex their characters are. Each band member fought their own battle with passion and a sense of vulnerability. (The film will show) their ambitions, their defeats, and their search for fame, friendship, and redemption.
Mexican writer and director Guillermo Arriaga once said that you should be able to sum up the subject of your work in a few words.
The film is about a group of people who have a dream that comes true, which means they are about to lose everything and have to reinvent themselves. He asks you how you will move forward when you achieve a dream, even if it means losing everything. How do you maintain the core of your identity? Any successful band opens the door to self-destructive excess. Often the biggest enemy of our dreams is ourselves. Mägo de Oz’s story is particularly unique because it unfolds in a Spanish context in Spain, with the band living their daily life in Madrid. It’s like it sets us apart from the American and British bands.
Is there something about gangs that creates internal conflict? Perhaps limited opportunities to express one’s creativity?
It’s something that amazes me. How can an entity achieve creativity and a sense of self, while being made up of different band members. It is not a case of one plus one or the sum of its parts. Its parts, the ensemble members, are integrated. The members of Mägo de Oz keep changing, and musicians come and go, but the identity of the band has remained alive, and has achieved a kind of independence in its own right…..
How do you feel this will be an Alvaro Brechner film?
It is absolutely impossible for a director not to give a sense of his own vision, in my case, a sense of humour, drama, love, and other elements such as imagination: the difference between what we dream of, what we want to be or think we are and what we are.
I said it’s a great movie…
Because of the large cast, the years it covers, the big heart the film has and its big narrative – which says a lot of things over a long period not just about the band but personal things about its members and things about Spain. Have you tried photographing 10 musicians playing together on stage? This is a challenge in itself.
The cast of “The Wizard of Oz.”
Copyright: Robin Shaviro