![]() “There’s a sense that the truth belongs to someone, and the stories belong to someone, and more and more we’re seeing that in Venezuela we’re not allowed to tell our own stories, and if we are, we are just allowed to tell the version that the government wants to hear.”Īlso Read: How Director François Girard Captured Montreal's History in 'Hochelaga: Land of Souls' “The truth is he was an idol in Venezuela,” Sal-Shalom said. ![]() Producer Nathalie Sal-Shalom said that tattoo in particular sparked a bizarre folk legend in which people wanted to dig up Valero’s grave and remove his tattoo in belief that it was harming Chavez’s health. And you can see his instant iconography in gruesome photos of blood dripping down the massive tattoo on his chest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the flag emblazoned behind him. Valero was known for his aggressive, relentless fighting technique and blistering punches. So this is probably something that they don’t want to hear.” The fact that we are bringing this story and telling what really happened, this love triangle, no one knew about that. “After died, nobody talked about him anymore, it’s like he didn’t exist. “In Venezuela, everything is political,” Castillo Cottin told TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman as part of the Awards and Foreign Screening Series at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles on Nov. Castillo Cottin says this is the first time in the country’s history that a film has been censored by the government, but he adds that it’s part of a longer trend of media censorship over the last few years.Īlso Read: How 'Beyond Brotherhood' Director Arianne Benedetti Put Panama on the Map The filmmakers won that case, but it was banned within days yet again by the Venezuelan supreme court. “El Inca” played for two weeks in Venezuelan theaters before being pulled following an injunction filed by Valero’s family. ![]() After that, the filmmakers behind his life story, “El Inca,” says his cultural legacy virtually vanished.ĭirector Ignacio Castillo Cottin spent years researching Valero, uncovering what he calls “this love story, which I think is tragic, dramatic and incredible love story worthy to make a film of it.” What he didn’t expect upon telling that story was how unearthing the past of a complicated, tortured individual would spark a legal controversy in Venezuela. But in 2010 he was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife and took his own life in prison. Edwin “El Inca” Valero was a Venezuelan icon, an undefeated, two-weight boxing world champion and a ferocious fighter who won all but one of his fights by knockout. ![]()
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