00:00The Cuban-Russian co-production that will bring to the big screen the life and sports
00:05career of the triple Olympic and World Champion Teofilo Stevenson is already being filmed
00:11on the largest island in the Caribbean.
00:14Our correspondent in Havana, Fabiola Lopez, tells us more.
00:21The Cuban-Russian co-production Teofilo is being shot in Havana by filmmaker Alejandro
00:27Hill. The two-hour film is an approach to the sporting life up to the 1980s of what many
00:33consider the best heavyweight in the history of boxing.
00:37The best amateur boxer of all times, Teofilo Stevenson.
00:41A boxing movie, a sports movie, a movie with feelings, a movie that also expresses the other
00:50side of the sportsman who gave his all in sometimes difficult sentimental situations.
00:56who had problems, situations that unbalanced him, fragilities, and how he had to impose
01:03himself before facing those difficulties and the preparation, dedication, faith, and passion
01:13in what he was doing.
01:15This is a movie that can be entertaining, a movie that is human-centered and that intends
01:21to dialogue with today's audience.
01:25The sequence that recreates the 1972 Munich Olympics is film where Teofilo fulminated the
01:31White Hope, as they call the favorite in the games, the U.S.
01:35Dwan Bobic.
01:36In scene next to Stevenson, then also legendary trainer Osiris Agarra played by Kike Guiñones,
01:42the last actor that arrived to the casting to play a co-starring role.
01:45The script gives you many possibilities, many edges, many things to hold onto and build what
01:57you want and the freedom that the director has given us to work on the characters and
02:01some texts, somehow accommodating the things you are going to say so that it flows as naturally
02:08as possible and we are building something precious.
02:11Teofilo tries to transcend the common places, it will not be a biography, but it will be
02:16faithful to the sport's trajectory, each combat an element of creative and artistic expression.
02:24I have tried to change a little the lighting style, to make the light in the film as natural
02:30as possible, so that the encounters between the protagonist and his friends and trainers
02:38would also be as documentary as it was possible for us.
02:43And there, I am walking with a lighting structure a little natural, without making you feel the
02:51light or have effects.
02:54Except for the fights.
02:56The fights are going to have some lighting effect.
03:00It is an unexpected privilege for Alejandro Phillips to make his film debut playing Stevenson.
03:11Extremely thin, he underwent an intense process of physical preparations, toned his body and
03:16learned to box like the experts.
03:18He studied in detail the style of Teofilo, how he moved in the ring and threw his punches.
03:22I am giving it my all you know.
03:33I am giving the best of me, giving everything I can in all aspects because this is a joke.
03:38My first film to start as a protagonist and I have the honor of being directed by such a
03:44director and the whole team.
03:46It is a constellation of stars which makes it a very big honor.
03:50So that brings with it a maximum commitment on my part and I am doing it with a lot of
03:55love.
03:57The directors of Teofilo warn that it is a work that explores the dignity and vulnerability
04:02of the character.
04:03A film that navigates between the documentary and the novel.
04:06An immense challenge to creation.
04:10What do you do?
