Lester Hamlet announces premiere of his soap opera Tú on Cuban TV

December 21, 2021

Tú may perhaps be the shortest title I've seen for a soap opera, however, the production process was as long and complex as perhaps no other has been, since it happened during these hard pandemic years. The good news is that "the novel for everyone" is already ready to come into our homes and absolutely determined to seduce us, just as it did with its production team.

The director, Lester Hamlet, is a successful filmmaker, with films like Tres veces dos, Fábula, and Casa vieja, but this is his debut in soap operas. How he came to this medium and to this specific project was told to us by the filmmaker himself:

"The project came to me in an unexpected way, one of those neighborhood things. It came thanks to a neighbor of mine who is an advisor to Television and started asking me: wouldn't you like to do fiction on television?, wouldn't you like to do a novel? I told her: yes, I would like to, but they've never called me, and she was the one who took my name to the head of Dramatizados, and I met Lully Larramendi (advisor) here at the production company to talk about the possibility of doing it and I fell in love with the project, with the opportunity, with everything..."

The central theme of Tú is the world of people with hearing disabilities. Regarding this, Hamlet commented: "That is the central axis of the story: the world of the deaf. In fact, the actors who participate in that area had three months of prior training to learn sign language and be able to work comfortably. Alicia Hechavarría has countless scenes where she even teaches classes, because she is a teacher. There's the case of Edgar, who plays the deaf boy in the novel and is actually a hearing person, it was delightful working with him."

The dramatized production reflects, for example, the topic of cochlear implants, a program that has benefited many Cuban children, so the production team has set out to make it function as homage, tribute to those doctors. Dr. Sevila advised everyone who participated there. The actors who interpret the doctors went to consultations, to rounds in the ENT ward at Ameijeiras..., they had extensive training.

"In the case of Michaelis Cué, who is the main doctor on the implant team, from his performance he also pays homage to Sevila. He captured an essential gestural essence of the doctor. It was work we were doing from the beginning. From the moment I gave him the script, he would send me scenes he filmed with his cell phone so I could see how he was working with his hands. They are surgeons who take great care of their hands because everything they do has to be very precise... it was very intense, really, always from the respect and honor to those great professionals."

Actors who sing and singers who act

The soap opera that is about to premiere on Cubavisión channel is full of surprises and discoveries, as Tú has challenged those who participate in it in such a way that it has forced them to bring out the good and the best of themselves. Among the particularities that Lester Hamlet has revealed to us is the participation of several musicians in the cast:

"They themselves asked me for it and I wanted to give the public the opportunity to see them in another facet. Haila is a family lawyer; it's not that she has that much, but she has four scenes in the novel, she's the one who processes divorces and adoptions. Telmary is the family doctor, who warns a bit about the tragic destiny of Daysi's character. Luna Manzanares has a little scene as an administrator of a pharmacy, but it's a scene that is full of meaning because Luna and María Eugenia Barrios are there, it's like a present and a past of singing, I would even say the scene goes from amusing to virtuoso with the two of them at the end.

"There's old information that El Chacal was going to be there, but he couldn't be, and as a substitute I invited Oliver Valdés, Rodney Barreto, and Horacio 'El Negro' Hernández to do one of the chapters where they are the caretakers of the cemetery, doing an improvised rumba there that accompanies one of the most tragic scenes of the soap opera."

The key to achieving their transformation in a field that is not their comfort zone, according to Lester, is simple: "Treat them as actors. There they weren't musicians, they weren't even actors: they were those characters. With Luna it's very easy, because Luna is a very virtuous woman. Haila... why wouldn't Haila step up to the plate? She herself wanted to. Telmary was a bit more difficult, but she wanted to and did it well; besides, we're going to see her with a different image: Telmary without a turban... imagine."

But "the pranks" of Lester Hamlet with his first soap opera went further: "the soundtrack of the characters is performed by themselves. When you see Yasbell in a scene and hear a voice, it's not another singer, it's the same actress. It will be the same with Denis Ramos, with Herón Vega, with Gabriel Wood, with Leonardo Benítez, with Jessica Borroto, Robertico Águila, Bárbaro Marín, Alicia... I said: who can make actors sing? Well... a Sampling. I brought Rey in to accompany us and we achieved it."

Lester also expressed his gratitude "to all the musicians who donated their works for the soundtrack of this novel, something that would have been priceless. When you say you have 56 or 57 chapters and each chapter has a song, that would be priceless, but thanks to Silvio, Pablo, Liuba, Polito, who not only gave songs from his repertoire, but made new songs, Adrián Berazaín, Issac Delgado, Raúl Torres, Amaury Pérez, Waldo Mendoza, Osdalgia, Vania, Haila María Mompié, Luna Manzanares, Eduardo Sandoval, Nassiry Lugo, Franco, a young man who gave and made themes for the soap opera and, of course, Karel García, author of the opening theme performed by Ivette Cepeda."

The novel for everyone

Because if it's not for everyone, such an effort isn't worth it; that's the philosophy that has accompanied a production that has been through many trials, including its director's illness:

"At one point I got sick with Covid and we had to stop a bit because the director was sick, I was admitted to the IPK. Then I tried to rest, but I couldn't do it completely, first because of my desire to film and because of concrete commitments I had with actors who needed to film on those dates. I remember that when I was at my sickest, with my IV, feeling very bad, the only thing I said was: 'My God, not now, let me finish the novel.'

"Something I'm grateful for and gives me great happiness is that, in the middle of such a hard year, of such a hard context, of such a hard process, everyone who participated in the novel has made it to at least today alive, and I'm infinitely grateful to the universe for that: the opportunity it has given all the members of this project to arrive alive at its celebration, and that is what it has meant: a joy of life, an immense lesson in work.

"The novel has already confirmed sales to the Cuba Max channel, therefore, it will be on a cable signal," Hamlet announced, and added that, parallel with the television broadcast or after each chapter ends, it will be shared on a YouTube channel "so that it has an international reach and everyone in the world can see it, because it's not worth sacrificing so much if it's not for everyone, and it's a beautiful way to show the world Cuba, who we are, how we love, how we care, how we hate, how we defend ourselves, through art, beyond politics, through creation."