Filmmaker Alberto ‘Chicho’ Durant narrates surprising facts of “Courage”, an impressive film about María Elena Moyano

On the afternoon of February 15, 1992, the brave social fighter and grassroots leader of Villa El Salvador, Maria Elena Moyano, was riddled with bullets and her body dynamited by Sendero Luminoso in retaliation for her opposition to terrorist barbarity. She was 33 years old. Three decades later, her legacy remains intact in a country that still stings with the deep scars left by terrorism.

“When I turned on the television and saw what had happened, I couldn’t believe it, it was a death foretold. My eyes filled with tears. After a while the phone rang, it was Lucho Peirano calling me to tell me that this should be the story of my next film. But since everything was very recent and it was a very sensitive case, I ruled out at that moment taking it to the cinema”, remembers the Peruvian director Alberto Luis Durant Cayo.

A year after the premiere of “Alias ​​La Gringa”, the filmmaker was still not sure what the plot of his next feature film was going to be. He was considering some possibilities, among them one of the stories published in “Sendero”, the book by Gustavo Gorriti.

“It was a story of a German and an Ayacucho woman who had to leave the farm they had in Huamanga after resisting an attack by Sendero with weapons. It reminded me a lot of the great Sam Peckinpah movie, “Straw Dogs.” So I called Gustavo to get together and tell him my intention to take it to the big screen”, narrates the director.

In that meeting, Durant decided the tenor of his new film. It was after Gorriti told him details of the minutes prior to his kidnapping by the National Intelligence Service (SIN), on the morning of April 6, 1992.

“. He had asked his wife, please, no one interrupt him, but as he insistently rang the phone, he stopped the video and answered. It was a friend who called him to tell him that the army was behind the opponents. And while he was saving some files that he had on the computer, soldiers came to take him away.. Coming out of that meeting I started working on the script for ‘Courage’”, remembers ‘Chicho’ Durant.

To learn more about the thoughts of the emblematic social fighter, the director and his production team interviewed almost 50 people, including family, friends, historians and members of the Popular Federation of Women of Villa El Salvador (FEPOMUVES).

“”, details the Peruvian filmmaker.

“Courage”, co-produced by Agua Dulce Films (Peru) and Fernando Colomo PC (Spain), is based on a decisive period in the life of María Elena Moyano: since the Lima district of Villa El Salvador was recognized with the Prince of Asturias de la Concordia in 1987, thanks to the neighborhood movement organized, among other people, by Moyano; until February 15, 1992, the day the social activist was assassinated by Sendero Luminoso.

Durant assures.

The film was shot for seven weeks in Peru and two in Madrid, Spain. Very few scenes were recorded in Villa El Salvador for fear of the terrorist group.

“The house of María Elena and the Women’s Federation was filmed in Chorrillos. It was a shoot with a lot of poise and tension. Sendero was still going around, we had to hire private security. . I asked my production company to find out what was behind it. It was a namesake. It was several hours of great anxiety“, Add.

major challenge

The casting was complex and prolonged, especially to find the protagonist. The first option was Ebelin Ortiz, but the character required an artist of greater age and physical weight. Finally, after several weeks of searching at the national level, the chosen one was Olenka Cepeda.

“Chance led me to Olenka. I had another beautiful and extremely talented actress who was going to play the character: Ebelin Ortiz. But she was so young, she didn’t work for the part. I kept looking. I put an ad in the newspaper, about fifteen women appeared and only one caught our attention because of her great resemblance to María Elena. The problem was that the lyrics were not learned. I gave her a second chance and she couldn’t either. I had to tell him no. But it’s the same day, at night, she called me dizzy to tell me that she had to play that role. I told her I would call her and hung up on her. She was stubborn, impetuous, wild, just like María Elena. One afternoon, I was driving through Miraflores, thinking about what to do with that paper, when I saw Olenka. That same day I called her and started working with her”, recalls the filmmaker.

“With Salvador del Solar things were different. He also went through a casting because he had never done movies, he debuted in ‘Courage’. I was impressed by his poise and ability to act, it was a wonderful experience working with him. He is an extraordinary person, a great actor. And as for the people who appeared in the marches, the majority were from the Popular Federation of Women of Villa El Salvador”, nods.

Blockbuster

“Courage” premiered in 1998. It brought a hundred thousand people to movie theaters and participated in different festivals. He won the Grand Prize of the OCIC (Catholic Cinematographic Office) at the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile, in 1998; as well as the Colón de Oro (Audience Award) and the Colón de Oro for Best Actress (Olenka Cepeda) at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival (Spain), in 1998.

perceptions

Before being released in theaters, ‘Chicho’ Durant made a special exhibition at the Metro cinema, for the members of the Federation of Women of Villa El Salvador. At the end of the projection, everyone ended up excited, there was no question about the story.

“Despite being a fictional story based on reality, with the necessary licenses for the film to work, everyone ended up satisfied, excited. The movie touched their soul”, emphasizes the director.

The Ministry of Culture of Peru, through the Directorate of Audiovisual, Phonography and New Media, announced a few days ago that the restored version of the film can be seen for free throughout Latin America until March 15 in the Latin American cinema platform Retina Latina.