2015 is shaping up to be the year of biopics (of the small screen variety) for Latino heroes and icons: not only will we finally get a series on the life of Celia Cruz, but we’ll also see a dramatization of the lives of politicos Julián and Joáquin Castro. The latest bit of development news has Mexico’s Diego Luna starring in a television series about the history of El Salvador’s 12 year civil war.
So far the word on the show, titled Cortando el Puente (Cutting the Bridge), is that it will focus on the murder of several high-profile Jesuit priests during the Salvadoran Civil War. It will follow a journalist who is covering the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and later, the murder of the UCA scholars, including Ignacio Ellacuría.
Luna will be featured in the mini-series, and Dolores Heredia and Ana de la Reguera are attached as well. Apparently, auditions are still being held, so we don’t know who will play Archbishop Romero, a man so admired for his populist beliefs by Salvadoreños that he’s on the short list for sainthood (though only after much debacle). It’s also a mystery who will be asked to portray Ellacuría, whose “Liberation Philosophy” placed him at odds with conservative religious views of the military regime in which he lived.
The death of the Jesuit scholars in 1989, marked a turning point, when global attention became focused on the atrocities that were occurring, the United States (temporarily) cut military aid to El Salvador. Within two years, the civil war that left 75,000 dead was over thanks to a U.N.-brokered peace treaty.
The story will be told in six episodes, and filming will begin in El Salvador early next year with three companies coordinating the production: El Salvador’s Meridiano89, Mexico’s Argos, and Spain’s Filmanova. In the meantime, consider tiding your inner history buff over with Voces Inocentes, an excellent film set during the conflict.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHEzJgx-f4Y