There is in this group of actors a natural relationship with risk and adrenaline, and that was what the director Laura Mora needed for The Kings of the worldthe award-winning Colombian film that can be seen in theaters starting today.
She had already had contact with young people who practiced gravity bike in Medellín (also called scourge), and he knew that this energy had a lot to do with what he wanted for his proposal: freedom and rebellion. So she found the perfect protagonists to play the young people who decide to embark on a journey through Bajo Cauca in Antioquia to reclaim a land that was taken from the grandmother of one of them: Andrés Castañeda, Cristian Camilo Mora, Davison Flores, Brahian Steven Acevedo and Cristian Campaña.
With them began the daily rehearsal sessions under the guidance of the casting director Karel Solei and with different collaborators and advisors in the training of natural actors such as Carlos Fagua. (earth and shadow)Andres Barrientos (The Serpent’s Embrace Y summer birds) and the professor of dramatic art at the University of Antioquia, Duvan Echavarria (kill jesus).
The actors were never shared the script, but they did rehearse the situations to approximate the emotions. “Each rehearsal, each meeting surprised the management team more. The talent, the capacity for imagination, improvisation, concentration and commitment of these boys was impressive”, they explained from the production.
The five young people were also accompanied by Alejandra Restrepo, a social worker, who recognizes that the triumph of the work was based on the fact that both the production team and the children “understood the value and power of building horizontal and respectful relationships.” She highlighted that giving them confidence to assume responsibilities, recognition, activity and affection allowed for harmonious work.
“It is essential to enable them to transform their world. They, after this experience, already have illusions, because they had the comparison of what they are and what they can become, and that is something that they themselves can provide”, concluded Restrepo.
For Laura Mora, these five young people “imprinted their truth on history, their sometimes chaotic energy, their rebellion and their love for a world that they recognize as hostile, but in which they want to remain. Their place of resistance is their joy and disobedience, even if the future seems uncertain”.
BRAHIAN ACEVEDO IS WINNY
The director had referenced him after a meeting of “gravitos”, but he was still very small. She found him again in the Laureles neighborhood —when the police stopped him from selling candy— and she contacted him. “He is 15 years old and he doesn’t like to be called a child because he says that all his life he has had to ‘war against her’.
CHRISTIAN CAMILO MORA IS A CULEBRO
He was casually interviewed at the stadium’s skatepark. “Tom knows very well the vicissitudes of the street and the conflicts between combos. There is an energy in him that infected Culebro with life, a character who seems condemned by himself, but whom he filled with humanity.”
ANDRÉS CASTAÑEDA IS RA
He was the last to join. The casting director first saw him at a police search. “He brought with him a certain tenderness, a fatherly and loving attitude that contrasts with his strength. He has lived through all the harshness of the violence in the territory, but that has not overshadowed the nobility of his heart”.
CRISTIAN CAMPAIGN IS NANO
Laura and Karel saw him on a court at the San José institution, where minors who have committed some type of minor crime are found. They saw in him a combination of shyness, mystery, and pride. “His shyness vanished and his good humor, his kind and caring character appeared.”
DAVISON FLORES IS SERE
He met Laura through a mutual friend. Years ago he had an accident in gravity, which reduced the mobility of his right arm. “Her sensitivity of hers, her spirituality of hers, her deep ideas about life and death, matched everything that she was looking for in that character.”