New Film by 7 Directors: Havana is the Star

Seven filmmakers, including Benicio del Toro in his directorial debut, Julio Medem, and Laurent Cantet, have joined together to make a film that pays tribute to modern-day Havana, with a script by award-winning Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura.

The announcement was made at the 32nd Havana Film Festival by three of the directors, who said shooting would begin in January for "Seven Days in Havana."

The other directors are Argentine Pablo Trapero (Carancho), Palestinian Elia Suleiman (The Time Left), Argentine/French Gaspar Noe (Irreversible), and Cuban Juan Carlos Tabio (Waiting List), and with Alvaro Longoria (Morena Films) as producer. Also contributing to the script are Arturo Infante and Eliseo Antunaga.

Seven stories of 15 minutes each take place over a week, day by day, and feature characters who live in Havana, "where everybody leads different lives and finds each other in the end."

According to Spanish director Julio Medem, he agreed to be part of the tribute to and for Havana from the very start. His story will be based on a love triangle between a Spanish man, a Cuban woman singer, and her baseball player boyfriend.

The film will feature a number of well-known Cuban actors, including Mirtha Ibarra, who will play a psychologist in the story directed by Tabío, and Vladimir Cruz, who will play one of the leading roles in the story directed by Del Toro.