It all started in Havana. Their recent project was suggested by a simple ruse for Mikael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson, who together directed the “The Peanut Butter Falcon” watched in 2019 and starring Shia LaBeouf.
According to Schwartz, his friendship with Nilson goes back to the time when they were working on “The Peanut Butter Falcon”. Before he made ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ he says (an example of details you should provide or not provide?), for instance; Michael remembers introducing himself to some Cubans while in the city who opened his mind to Latin American cultures. A friend of Niels’s told him that there are some people from among the actors and artists on Cuba, who they met through relationships they had made with them, as said of Mikael S. They discovered that there is something happening in Cuba: a band of Cuban punk rockers in their teens allowed themselves to be infected with HIV willingly so that they would get food, accommodation and escape by being admitted into one of the state-controlled sanatoria.
Schwartz, nevertheless, was unsure if “Los Frikis” could be financed and produced by an American company as he wanted to bring Latin American stories across the border in a Spanish-language film. Nonetheless, in 2018 the buzz surrounding Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-winning “Roma” gave him greater confidence in the potential of “Los Frikis”, which has since secured U.S. distribution from Wayward/Range.
Therefore, Schwartz and Nilson began to put together their creative team for this project starting with Academy Award-winning producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Lord said that as a Cuban-American himself he knows many stories that would probably disappear if they couldn’t find ways to be told through wider audiences.
Relating to his mindset, Schwartz observes, “There’s an opportunity here to tell this story really authentically and in the Spanish language and still have it seen worldwide.” He adds, “We wanted to tell it in the native language and didn’t even believe that was possible until we saw ‘Roma’ and the way it was embraced.”
According to Héctor Medina who portrays Paco in the film, working class families have often been victimized by the Cuban government. As such, this movie raises their societal status through a narrative about freedom.
“To me, the hero of the movie is the brother who chooses family,” Medina said in Spanish. “This family we form in the sanatorium is a way of finding freedom. There’s always a path to love.”
At Creative Artists Agency last month, there was a special screening of Los Frikis where Eros De La Puente who plays Gustavo revealed during a Q&A that prior to the film’s premiere he had never been inside a movie theater.
“There are many things that he had not experienced, which many of those actors were yet to experience, and the way they respond to it was really interesting to hold space for,” Schwartz says. “We were in Coral Gables cinema in Miami, (Eros) stands with us at a certain place. He has never seen films in a movie theater before, so we were able to watch his first film on the big screen and he himself acted as its main character.”
Nilson remembers when they filmed in the Dominican Republic; they took the cast members to a grocery store the size of a 7-Eleven. Most of them had never seen so much food before.
De La Puente, Schwartz explained, never ate pasta. The lead actor from this movie eventually filled up an entire suitcase with 50 pounds of pasta that he then carried back home to Cuba with him.
For Schwartz, he and Nilsen are pulled towards tonal themes of loss. He pointed to the mix of comedy and drama displayed in “Los Frikis” as a major priority for the filmmakers, saying that it is hard for him to find characters when a story has a gloomy tone all through the film.
“Sometimes if you just stay intense throughout, it can feel like punishment,” he said. “There’s also sort of an emotional block where we don’t really get to know these people unless we have some laughter.”
Arjona then adds that the comedy and joy infused in the narrative perfectly balances out such heavy subject matter in “Los Frikis.”
She also says that the movie tells a number of different love stories with two brothers’ relationship being at its emotional core.
“There’s something very poetic and beautiful about wanting freedom so badly that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to find it within your own country,” Arjona asserts. “That’s what we do in life.”
Schwartz also talks about how he loved what many of the Cuban actors experienced on “Los Frikis.” The cast would explain their inability to eat as lucky because they could still enjoy songs, art and friendship, according to him.
“There is always family, love and humor even in the direst of situations,” said Schwartz. “What do we do that keeps us human and connected within any of these different circumstances? Because no matter what country you’re in, those are the things that keep a community.”
Arjona remembers how the actors stayed in a hotel throughout the shoot in the Dominican Republic and, for many members of the cast, it was their first time to get out of Cuba. The “Hit Man” star says she found herself taking on a maternal role in ensuring her cast mates were enduring mentally.
“We all knew we were part of something much bigger than ourselves from day one,” Arjona said. “That first script sort of bonded us together, like ‘We’ve got to make this great.’”
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