Riquimbili or The World of Nelsito, the new film by Fernando Pérez in production

July 9, 2021

Fernando Pérez's new film is already in production, with the working title Riquimbili or El mundo de Nelsito, and is being produced by the ICAIC in conjunction with the Spanish company Wanda Films. The feature film is based on a screenplay co-written by the director together with Abel Rodríguez, who is collaborating again with the renowned filmmaker after they worked together on Últimos días en La Habana (2016).

The story takes place in locations spread throughout the length and breadth of the capital's geography, mainly Alamar, where the protagonists live, but also Boyeros, Plaza de la Revolución, Habana del Este and 10 de Octubre.

The dramatic pivot of the story turns out to be a car accident. Perhaps the streets of La Habana occupy an important space in this new film, as is also the case in Madagascar, La vida es silbar, Suite Habana or La pared de las palabras. In the latter, the protagonist (Jorge Perugorría) also suffers a traffic accident at a tragic moment.

In the film's official synopsis, it is told that the victim of the car accident is Nelsito, a 16-year-old autistic teenager who has managed to escape from his home. While everyone rushes toward the injured young man, his large eyes register every detail, because from his imagination, Nelsito sees beyond. Thus, the boy will also tell us of the dark, hidden and concealed side of the characters around him.

Back home and now recovered, Nelsito will be received by characters that the viewer already knows, but then one must ask which are the authentic ones, the ones we are seeing or the ones that the boy presented to us through his subjectivity. Because these are ordinary mortals that Nelsito imagines in his own way, just as the actor and writer who starred in the misunderstood Madrigal used to fictionalize with the characters of his daily life.

The lead character, or at least the one who governs the film with his gaze and imagination, is played by young José Raúl Castro, with no previous acting experience. He joins two of the consistently present actresses in Fernando Pérez's cinema: Isabel Santos (Clandestinos, La vida es silbar, La pared de las palabras), who plays Ana, Nelsito's mother; and Laura de la Uz, recognized within and outside Cuba for her performances in Hello Hemingway, Madagascar and La pared de las palabras, and who plays Carmela, Ana's representative, who in addition to being the protagonist's mother is an internationally known painter.

Also in the cast are Jacqueline Arenal, Carlos Enrique Almirante, Paula Alí, Edith Massola and Omar Franco, among others. Returning to Cuban cinema after a long stay in Colombia, Jacqueline Arenal plays the role of Vivian, an intellectual with a more or less comfortable life, wife of Daniel (Carlos Enrique Almirante, who worked with Fernando in the previous Madrigal; José Martí, el ojo del canario and La pared de las palabras). Vivian and Daniel are also part of a car accident, another one, and are later blackmailed by Manolo, the character played by Omar Franco.

Edith Massola plays Julia, the doctor who treats several patients at the hospital where Nelsito arrives. Furthermore, Ana, Carmela and Julia are friends, apparently, since they were children. Paula Alí is an elderly woman with senile dementia named Esperanza, who is cared for by Loreta, played by Yerlín Pérez.

These characters, and some others that we refrain from describing so as not to make the account too long, star in the various stories that Nelsito imagines, from his stretcher in the hospital emergency room, where he is treated after the accident. Each character has their own conflicts in each of the five stories that the film narrates, but all the segments seem marked by the director's desire that the viewer can never differentiate what is reality or the imagination of the protagonist-narrator.

Judging by all these elements, we will be in the presence of not only a choral film, but also an episodic one, with abundant touches of black humor, the latter a resource seldom employed by the director, more inclined in his previous works toward tragedy, melodrama, the historical and the surrealist-dreamlike.

In the official documentation about the new project, Fernando Pérez assures: "Riquimbili aspires to be a game. A game of narrative structures and a game of characters. Both (narrative structures and characters) merge (and confuse) in the reality and imagination of the protagonist, who transforms everything he sees into stories that play with melodrama, the absurd, and black humor".

Post-production of the film will occur in the final months of 2021, and if all goes well, it will premiere sometime in the first semester of 2022. The new ICAIC project features cinematography by Raúl Prado, production by Daniel Díaz, art direction by Fernando Cruz and Laura N. Díaz (who also handles costume design), direct sound will be handled by Velia Díaz, and the soundtrack will be designed by Sheyla Pool, while casting was handled by Gloria María Cossío, one of Fernando Pérez's most frequent collaborators.