Del Toro Films in Havana Unrecognized

Del Toro Films in Havana UnrecognizedHavana, Mar 12. -Unrecognizable at first glance, Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro is filming like at home one of the stories of the film "Sietes Dias en la Habana" (Seven Days in Havana), a portrait of the Cuban capital drawn by an equal number of directors.

Only a perspicacious movie-goer would be able to identify him while filming near the jazz club La zorra y el Cuervo in La Rampa, the city's most popular avenue, where his colleague Jack Nicholson enjoyed a Cuban night, finishing it with a rumba along the street at dawn.

Wearing a cap, the face hidden behind a beard and a long hair, he gives precise orders to the film cast of his short "Yuma", starring an American actor who discovers the city in his everyday life, a story with touches of comedy, fun, entertainment, very far from any touristic environment.

Elusive to reporters, however, he talked for a few minutes to Prensa Latina and expressed his pleasure to use Havana as the place for his first adventure as a filmmaker.

Del Toro has under his direction a cast that includes American Josh Hutcherson and Cuban Vladimir Cruz, Daisy Granados and Laura de la Uz.

His other sets are the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, often hosts of the Havana's film festivals and the preferred establishment of many artists visiting the island since the foundation of this building of colonial architecture, with the Caribbean Sea at its feet and magnificent privileged gardens.

Del Toro does not hide his love for a capital he has visited more than a dozen times, and in which he received the International Film Award Tomas Gutierrez Alea 2009, awarded by the National Association of Cuban Writers and Artists.

On that occasion he did not want to celebrate along an award he considers very important and brought with him his colleagues James Caan, Robert Duval and Bill Murray. (Prensa Latina)