The work schedule of Luciano Caceres it is so intense, whether on the big or small screen or in the theater, that it is impossible to ignore it in order to measure not only the calling of this popular actor in the aforementioned fields, but also his remarkable capacity for work. It is enough to remember that he was on tour all this year with “Nudes”, a work by Doris Dörrie that she led with Gonzalo Heredia, Esteban Lamothe, Brenda Gandini, Sabrina Rojas and Mercedes Scápola and that will end her journey in Mar del Plata, where she went on stage for the first time, before the coronavirus pandemic. Weeks ago, the third Uruguayan tour of “El ardor” ended, another award-winning hilarious proposal written by Alfredo Stafollani and which he made known on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires as director and performer, although now he is supplanted by Juan Gil Navarro, accompanied by Juana Viale, Joaquin Berthold and Santiago Magariños. “It was the last play I directed, in 2018, and I really want to do it again. We are looking to finalize something with Gonzalo Demaría in what would be our fifth collaboration together”, he tells NOTICIAS.
Shortly after conducting this interview, he was traveling to Israel to complete the film “The night I fought against God” by Rodrigo Fernández Engler, inspired by the AMIA attack, but linked to the biblical story of the patriarch Jacob, which he embodies, and in which he shares the leading role with Tomás “Toto” Kirzner and Carolina Kopelioff. “We filmed four weeks in various locations in the province of Córdoba, and now we are going to finish it there. I had to learn how to pronounce ancient Hebrew. It is important to tell the pain of what we had to suffer so closely, and it is exciting to learn the culture of the Jewish people. They are those beautiful opportunities that, sometimes, this profession gives you, ”he confesses.
In addition, several feature films that have him as the main actor await their debuts in Argentine cinemas. From the comedy “Lennons”, by José Cicala, together with Gastón Pauls and Luis Machín; the police “The education of the pigs”, by Eduardo Pinto, whose cast is completed with Tupac Larriera and Cumelén Sanz; the paranormal horror film “Tú”, by Amín Yoma, with José Giménez Zapiola (El purre), Malena Ratner and Magui Bravi; the thriller “El nene revancha”, the film debut of playwright Gonzalo Demaría, in which he plays a blind boxer; the Italian “El nido”, in the key of psychological horror by Mattia Temponi, filmed in Rome; he is finally recording the feature film “Las Nubes”, with Leonor Manso and Guillermo Zapata, once again under the direction of the prolific director Pinto.
As if that were not enough, last month the Brazilian film “Paixões recurrentes” (Endless Passions) by Ana Carolina Teixeira Soares, which deals with the death of ideology and is set in the Rio de Janeiro coast on the day World War II was declared.
But he is also Bruno, the main character of “El desarmadero”, the Argentine horror film directed by Pinto that was first presented at the 36th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, was part of the 22nd edition of Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre , a cycle dedicated to horror, fantastic and bizarre movies, one of the most important in Latin America, and which premiered commercially a few days ago.
It tells the disturbing story of a plastic artist who is the victim of a family tragedy that changes his life forever. The news completely shakes him and leads him to have to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital to treat his hallucinations. The stay seems to help him cope with the unexpected blow and the hospital authorities decide to discharge him. Alone, without family, Bruno chooses to take refuge in his friend Roberto’s, who offers him a job in a car wrecker. There he will find that each car has a story, including one that directly involves him.
News: They say that genre films, whether horror, police or even western, are a good excuse to talk about other things. After seeing it, it seems that “El Desarmadero” would be a good example. What do you think?
Luciano Caceres: Definitely. Eduardo Pinto, the director with whom I have been doing a lot of work, likes to portray the suburbs. He is from Moreno, from the western area. Social criticism of the “marginalized” always appears in his films, although here he also incorporates psychiatric patients. Something that I studied a lot when I directed Leonor Manso in the solo show “4.48 Psicosis” by the British playwright Sarah Kane. How all of a sudden psychiatry, which we are grateful to exist, intervenes with medications on patients, waking them up, putting them to sleep, cheering them up, stimulating them, etc. But that pain they suffer has no cure. There is no antidote to heal it. For this reason, the leitmotif of the film is “I’m not crazy; I’m alone”, the phrase that my character says and explains a little the reason why he does what he does. Another retorts “crazy shit” and he reaffirms, “it’s not crazy.” Similar to what Kane affirmed with “this is a lucid moment, before the endless night”. That is, there is a decision.
News: How was the shooting?
Caceres: With the group producer “Eusebia la higuera”, we went out to do it without any subsidy and with borrowed equipment. The only support was from “Rodríguez Filma”, an audiovisual initiative of the General Rodríguez municipal government, which allows us to use locations such as a bar or block a street without charging us. Something that if we wanted to do it in the city of Buenos Aires would cost us the same as an entire film. There, on the other hand, they stimulate filming in this way because they know that various sources of work are generated around a filming. There is also a vital need to go out and film, even if it is by lung. As soon as I got back from Rome, where I was lucky enough to star in a movie, shot in the middle of the 2020 quarantine, we got together in mid-November, in December there was a script sketch, and on January 2, 2021 we started shooting. So brutal was the need for all the colleagues in the different technical and artistic areas, who at that time were unemployed, and they had a lot of desire and a contagious vitality. We were telling a dark story, but in a climate of joy to do something again.
News: Your daughter Amelia participated as an actress in the film. What was it like working together?
Caceres: It was spectacular. The director has known her since she was little and had already proposed another one before. He loves the horror genre and loved being an accessory to it. She’s 12 years old, she’s about to turn 13, and when she filmed she was 11, so she was immortalized as a girl.
News: And then he continued with his admirable work rhythm.
Caceres: Yes (laughs). Then I made about six more movies when the industry opened, the “Nudes” tour and “La 1-5/18”, which was the first post-pandemic television strip and had me frozen for nine months recording. Thank God, because he is hardworking.
News: What do you take into account when getting involved in projects?
Cáceres: There are jobs that finance my household expenses, what is necessary to live, and organize the year, let’s say; and there are others that I approach with the same spirit of independent theater: because I don’t want to miss them. Where I am going to try different expressive edges. This year I won a Martin Fierro for “La 1-5/18” with a character that could almost be the heartthrob of a soap opera. But in parallel, I put in films where I could transform myself, not think about aesthetic care and be able to build aspects that, perhaps, the genre of the novel does not allow. At the same time, I think I am taking the public to other areas. For example, getting an item for NEWS for an independent film has to do with my more commercial work.
News: Are you in a relationship?
Caceres: Yes! Two years ago, with Belén (Riva Roy). First she was my yoga teacher during quarantine and virtually. When I returned from Italy we met personally and we are very well.
