In conversation with BioBioChile, different interpreters of the tape highlight the main challenges of recording in Araucanía. However, both Chileans and Spaniards let the cold mark their memory when it came to remembering the recordings.
At the beginning of March, Amaron Prime Video released Sayén, the first Chilean action film that features Spanish actors Arón Piper and Roberto García among its antagonists in a trilogy that began in southern Chile and hopes to continue in new regions of the country.
Among the biggest challenges, the protagonists of the film commented to BioBioChile that everything is found between the climatic complexities when recording in extreme climates as well as the effects of recording in the midst of the pandemic.
“I remember that it was like a reality show”, highlights Eduardo Paxeco. “We were in Covid, you couldn’t leave the hotel, the only ways out were to go record and was to leave at five in the morning in a temperature of -4filming until it got dark at 6 and we returned to the hotel, but it was extremely entertaining”, he recalls.
Someone who cannot forget those low temperatures is the Spanish Roberto García, who is called by the rest of the cast as the expert in doing combat scenes and who, in his words, the cold was his main enemy in those moments.
Specifically, he recalls one of the fight scenes between him and Rallén Montenegro, where they fight hand-to-hand in the middle of the Araucanian forest.
“That was a sequence that cost me, It looks like there was not so much work, but it took a lot to get that choreography “he recalls, noting that the bamboo poles with which they fight “did a lot of damage, they had to make very controlled blows and there were very painful falls.”
“With that cold, the lesions appear immediately, there were breaks, a lot of things. But we have several highly trained specialists, known to those weapons who taught us how to control everything, ”he adds.
Despite the fact that he affirms that the injuries were present, he also points out that there was a detail that he loved about the Chilean delivery: “In the scene they added an element of Mapuche defense, which was a nod to culture. Apart, We had a wonderful time even though it was a very cold and very hard day”.
“Really, how difficult was that action with that weather; You had to constantly warm up before shooting, but it doesn’t give you time for muscle preparation, ”he explains, assuring that, although he warmed up, at the time of recording his body it had already cooled down.
Arón Piper also highlighted those temperatures in his experience on set, assuring that they were “The hardest and at the same time the most rewarding”.
“They were extreme conditions: it snowed, there was rain and the most we had was that little tent with a heater. Imagine being in that environment with all that mud, performing and taking into account that you can injure yourself by falling. It was difficult, but at the same time rewarding, ”she mentions.
In addition to recording for the first time in the south of Chile, Piper also highlighted being in Sayén as an opportunity to be an antagonistic characterhighlighting his first time in an action movie.
“It was something I’m not used to. It was a challenge and It is a character that helps me in this transition to a more adult character”mentions.
Regarding her performance in action scenes, Piper recalls that “there was a team behind specialists who taught us choreography, using weapons.”
However, also García’s help stands out when he wants to perform in the physical aspect. “So, I took advantage and said ‘since I’m with this man with such big muscles (García), I’m going to follow in his footsteps in these two months,” he recalls.
“He put me on a diet and I gained almost 10 kilos”, he highlighted between laughs. “It was a lot for me. And it was fun. It was nice to be fit and ready and prepared for the scenes,” she mentions.
In that branch, Paxeco mentions that initially there was a physical training in conjunction with the entire cast, but that shortly after, Rallén Montenegro had to receive additional classes because the protagonist is nothing more than a Mapuche warrior.
“I worked with a specialist and It is very nice to think that the two of us built Sayén”, mentions Montenegro. “That process was very nice, because usually one does it alone and working on it with another to exalt the character was very beautiful for me,” she mentions.
“Anyway, We were lucky that Roberto has worked a lot in action and Arón had this handling on camera”adds Paxeco, pointing out that the Spanish ended up helping the Chileans to be able to develop in the action genre.
Sayén It was directed by Alexander Witt and produced by Fábula, Pablo Larraín, Juan de Dios Larraín and Rocío Jadue.
The story centers on Sayén, a Mapuche woman who, upon returning to live with her grandmother, discovers that a multinational company is looking to buy her grandmother’s land in order to exploit the land both in southern Chile and in different parts of the planet. .
By refusing to sell the land, Sayén’s family ends up being murdered, to which the young woman must face the conspiracy that the same businessmen begin to unleash, seeking, in turn, revenge.