EXCLUSIVE: Filming has wrapped on In the Valley of Shadows, a Netflix movie starring Gael García Bernal and Natalia Reyes and based on an H.G. Wells short story. The film, which was shot in Colombia, will have a theatrical release locally before dropping worldwide on the streamer.
Sebastián Cordero directs In the Valley of Shadows from a screenplay he penned with María Camila Arias. García Bernal and Natalia lead a cast that also includes Claudio Cataño, Diego Vásquez, and Margarita Rosa de Francisco. Dynamo produced the film for Netflix, which has built a deep slate of original movies and series out of Latin America.
In the Valley of Shadows (aka En El Valle De Las Sombras) is based on Wells’ 1904 short story The Country of the Blind. The movie adaptation follows Álvar Toledano (García Bernal), a mountaineer, who falls into an isolated valley inhabited by a community that has been blind for generations.
Toledano is convinced of his superiority, but soon discovers that his ability to see is considered a disturbance rather than an advantage among the people of the valley. As he tries to adapt, Álvar falls in love with Medina (Reyes), the woman caring for him. Per the synopsis: Álvar must decide whether to renounce who he is in order to belong, or whether the price of seeing is to flee the valley of shadows.
The movie was shot in Colombia and specifically, across locations in Boyacá and Cundinamarca, including Santa Sofía, Suesca, the Tatacoita desert, and Choachí. Mirlanda Torres exec produces.
Netflix has been keen to show off its credentials when it comes to backing production in Colombia – it said last year shooting One Hundred Years Of Solitude there generated $52M for the local economy, per our exclusive report. Panning out, it has also pledged $1B to Mexican production, while co-CEO Greg Peters was recently in Brazil to open a new and enlarged office in São Paulo.
Along with the news of In the Valley of Shadows, we’ve got the first-look pictures from the film. Take a look below.
(L to R) Margarita Rosa de Francisco, Diego Vásquez, Gael García Bernal, Natalia Reyes, Claudio Cataño in In the Valley of Shadows/En El Valle De Las Sombras
Max Morales /Netflix
(L to R) Natalia Reyes, Claudio Cataño in In the Valley of Shadows/En El Valle De Las Sombras
Netflix
In the Valley of Shadows/En El Valle De Las Sombras
Netflix
In the Valley of Shadows/En El Valle De Las Sombras
Netflix