Director of «Wasp Network»: «Filming in Cuba was very tense»

HAVANA, 1 Sept. The movie “Wasp Network” (wasp network), which tells how the 5 Cuban spies infiltrated anti-Castro groups in the US, has parts filmed in Cuba…

and its director, Olivier Assayas, states that doing so was something “very tense.”

The film, headed by Spain’s Penelope Cruz and Venezuelan Edgar Ramírez, focuses on the true history of Cuban spies in the US during the 1990s, when Florida-based anti-Castro groups carried out military attacks against Cuba countered with ” Wasp Network ”to infiltrate those organizations.

Assayas wrote the film based on Fernando Morais’ book, “The Last Soldiers of the Cold War: The History of the Cuban Five,” details the Variety website.

The director indicated that initially, filming in Cuba was impossible since the regime flatly refused, so he began to look for another location that would replace Havana

“First they refused to give us the authorization, but the discussions continued. So we looked for a place that could replace Havana and start filming… But then the Cubans changed their minds and opened all the doors for us, ”said Assayas, who lived in Havana for half a year to make the film.

He said it was “extraordinary” since it is the first time that Castro had the doors to a filmmaker to portray the Island.

“We filmed for a very tense time due to the political context, particularly due to the Trump administration. We were closely watched by the Cuban State and subjected to fluctuations in the political climate. ”

He said that the challenge was to make “a film with international and aesthetic ambition, in a country where there are poverty and an embargo … It was an adventure.”

Because of the tension, the director feared that the next day the Cubans will not let him shoot and that what worrying.

Assayas said the film takes an “ambivalent position that is pro-democratic but also tells Cuban history through characters that are not portrayed as the bad guys but as victims of terrorist operations.”

“Wasp Network” explores “modern politics, the underworld of modern information and misinformation, which we now call propaganda,” said Assayas.