The secrets of “Utopia”: the truth behind the strong bond that unites the director of the film with the relatives of the victims

Gino Tassara was seven years old when his parents died. Almost a decade and a half later, in 2002, his grandmother, the woman who guided his steps when he was orphaned, also passed away. He was just beginning to recover from the painful loss, when that same year, the death of his sister plunged him into absolute desolation.

“I am very attached to the issue of losing loved ones”, emphasizes the Peruvian film director and journalist.

And precisely those harsh experiences led Tassara to understand the language of loneliness and to create a natural link with the relatives of the victims of the fire at the exclusive nightclub. Utopia, occurred on July 20, 2002 at 3:15 am. Twenty-nine young people died that tragic day.

“As fate would have it, when I started working at América TV in 2013, they asked me to write a small note for the anniversary of Utopia. I interview Mr. Luis Delgado Aparicio, father of one of the young women who died in the fire, and he asks me if I can make a profile of his daughter Verónica. A few days later he introduces me to Mr. Roberto Valverde, Marcela’s father, another of the victims. Then I was introduced to several dads, who asked me to write a book about the case, which eventually ended up being made into a movie.”, emphasizes the director.

“”, he nods.

In this initial stage, Gino Tassara joins the remembered director Jorge Vilela already Edith Tapia. Thanks to the management of the businesswoman and model, 81 sponsors entered the film.

“The next step was to interview dad for dad, brothers and friends of the victims. With Karla Velezmoro, a former journalist from ‘Cuarto Poder’, we did an arduous investigative job. The whole process until we got to the recording took us five years”, details the creative.

List

“Utopia, the movie” It has a great cast of actors: Renzo Schuller, Rossana Fernandez Maldonado, Gianfranco Brero, Cécica Bernasconi, Carlos Mesta, Edith Tapia, Javier Valdes, Leslie Stewart, Marissa Minetti, Alexandra Graña, Haydee Caceres, Fernando Bakovic, Mari Pili Barreda, Kathy Serrano, Junior Silva, Valeria Bringas, Natalia Salas, Giovanni Arce, Guty Carrera, among others.

. But not finding a positive response from the actor, he conducted an exhaustive casting.

“. All of them, due to personal issues and schedules, could not be in the film. I wrote to Rodrigo Sánchez Patiño on WhatsApp to offer him the main role, but in the end it didn’t happen. So we decided to do a casting in which several actors appeared.. I knew the whole story, I was soaked”, clarifies Tassara.

“The general casting lasted almost a year. I remember that we took the parents of the victims several faces of actors who were in fashion so that they could tell us if any of them looked like their children. Mrs. Pilar Villarán barely saw the photo of Ingrid Altamirano, she said. ‘She’s my daughter’. And really the resemblance was enormous, after the transformation they were like two drops of water. ‘”, narrates the director.

It also acknowledges that the journalist Julián Contreras, a character played by Renzo Schullerwas inspired by him.

“: ‘First, your work; second, your job; third, your work and fourth I just came‘” recalls Tassara.

location

The disco scene was recorded in a local Lince and the exteriors in an outlet in Lurín. To give the film greater realism, the production team adapted the facilities where the recordings were made. They made a replica of the bathrooms, the bar and the dance floor.

“It was hard and expensive work. And some houses that appear in the film belong to the parents of the victims. In addition to allowing us to film on their property, they lent us their children’s costumes and props., highlights Tassara.

Adversity

Despite having the support of the parents of the victims and sponsors, to Gino Tassara It was not easy to get the film off the ground. He acknowledges that there were those who took advantage of his inexperience.

“Three weeks before starting ‘Utopia’ I had to take out the producer, the production manager and the director of photography. I made a radical change. They robbed us, they swindled us, then we found out that the actors who had told us they were there, really weren’t. And they ignore you with the story that you have never made movies. It was there that I realized that the numbers did not fit, that the money disappeared, that I paid people who should not pay and that they were looking at me like a fool”, he manifests.

“Then when the movie came out they told me that Netflix I didn’t want it because it wasn’t comedy. And when ‘Utopia’ was about to stay in the trunk of memories, he calls me Movistar Play to buy it for me There I find out that the person who was supposedly moving it, did not. So, Mauricio Franco, a friend who is a filmmaker and lives in Spain, helped me with the subject of Netflix. It was a vile lie that they didn’t want her”He argues.

In addition to winning twelve international awards, he assures Tassara that “Utopia” contributed to the authorities putting the case back on the table and to the subsequent capture of those involved.

“In addition to capturing the sadness of the parents for the absence of their children and the outrage at corruption, the film managed to move the case that was dormant. The authorities put Alan Azizollahoff already Edgar Paz Ravines on the wall of shame, and Edgar Paz was captured in Mexico and extradited to Peru“, Says Tassara.

Ticket office

The feature film premiered on September 27, 2018. It brought 600,000 viewers to theaters, becoming the highest-grossing dramatic film in the history of Peruvian cinema. It is currently among the most viewed in Peru on the platform Netflix.