02/03/2009

Shooting continues in Barcelona on Biutiful, the new work by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. This highly-anticipated film – co-produced by Spain’s Mod Producciones and Mexico’s Menageatroz – is a further example of the current trend in Spanish production to seek out internationally-renowned directors, following box office hits such as Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Che.

Filming on Biutiful – which is taking place in Ciudad Condal, Badalona and Santa Coloma – began on October 27, 2008 and is scheduled to last until March. Iñárritu said he co-wrote the film, with Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone, with Javier Bardem in mind. The actor re-emerged from the sabbatical year he took after his Oscar for No Country for Old Men.

In Biutiful, Bardem plays Uxbal, a man struggling to recover from a failed love affair, who must fight to protect his children and make peace with his past.

For his new film, the director of Love’s a Bitch, 21 Grams and Babel is reunited with some of his usual collaborators, including DoP Rodrigo Prieto (who also worked on Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile]), composer Gustavo Santaolalla and editor Stephen Mirrione. The film’s producers are Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira and Iñárritu.

In recent days, Biutiful has been at the centre of a controversy with the trade union TACE (Spanish Audiovisual and Film Technicians), which criticised an “accumulation of problems” for technicians during the shoot, including an alleged dismissal procedure (ERE). However, both Mod Producciones and the TACE-affiliated technicians taking part in the project have denied the allegations.

(Translated from Spanish)