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Andy García became emotionally overcome this Wednesday at the Festival de Cannes while discussing Cuba during the press conference for his new film, Diamond, and declared to the press: “I have a hole in my heart”.
The Cuban-American actor and director, born in Havana 70 years ago, presented Diamond out of competition in the official section of the 79th edition of the French festival, his second feature film as a director, 21 years after La ciudad perdida.
But it was her stance on the political situation of the island that characterized the day with the greatest intensity.
In a subsequent interview with the AFP agency, García was emphatic: "No one wants war, but absolute repression and the suffering of the people in that country are not the alternative; it is not something we should accept."
He went further by imagining a direct consultation with the Cubans: "If the Cuban people, not the Cuban government, were asked whether they would want the United States, France, or any other country to intervene to save them, 90% would unanimously say: 'Please, come and invade our country and get rid of these people.'"
García also confirmed in Cannes that he is continuing to develop another script, Hemingway & Fuentes, about the friendship between the writer Ernest Hemingway and the Cuban boat captain Gregorio Fuentes, a relationship that inspired The Old Man and the Sea.
The actor's public commitment to the freedom of Cuba is not new. In July 2021, García stated that "62 years of tyranny and repression" must come to an end in support of the protests on July 11, and that same month he participated alongside Gloria and Emilio Estefan in a session at the White House regarding policy towards Cuba. In April of this year, he lent his voice to the song "Que se vayan" alongside Cuban singer San Miguel Pérez.
As for Diamond, the film has an unusual origin: 20 years ago, his daughter Daniella didn't know how to finish an English assignment inspired by The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, and her father helped her.
"Two decades ago, I improvised this character, the sequences, stories, and internal monologues in just an hour, and it remained etched in my memory," García recalled at the press conference.
In 2012, he wrote a 60-page pilot script for a potential series that was not picked up by any studio. Ultimately, he completed the feature film script and secured funding independently: "I didn’t find support in any studio, and we raised it independently."
The film was shot in just 25 days across 40 locations in Los Angeles, with key support from Filipino producer Paul Soriano, to whom García publicly expressed gratitude: "Without having distribution, without knowing what would come of it, he listened to this crazy Cuban."
The cast includes Vicky Krieps, Brendan Fraser, Danny Huston, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Rachel Ticotin, and Robert Patrick. Daniella herself appears in a small role as a hotel employee.
García was moved to tears when mentioning the director of photography Néstor Almendros —"He was my friend and my mentor"— and reflecting on the long journey traveled: "I just remembered something very personal, and it's the journey that has brought us here."
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