U.S. HISPANIC
Mañana Antes Después, a Canadian-US co-production, turned Bogotá into a post-apocalyptic city
Maribel Ramos-Weiner| 12 de abril de 2023
Mañana Antes Despues BTS
The Canadian Alfonso Quijada, director, writer, and film producer, saw Bogotá as the ideal place to recreate the desolate and shady world that appears in his new film Mañana Antes Después, premiering in Colombian cinemas on the 13th. It’s a post-apocalyptic story where the renowned Natalia Reyes (Terminator: Dark Fate, Pickpockets, Pájaros de Verano) plays the last woman on the face of the Earth, who must survive in the midst of tragedy and face an unexpected pregnancy.
It is a co-production between Canada and the US, produced in Colombia by Apollo Pictures, Sivela Pictures, 64A Films, and FirstGen Entertainment. It was shot over 21 days in 2021 when there were still restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Before he was working on a project in El Salvador when the lockdown came and his production team made up of people from different parts of the world was dismantled. With that experience and motivated by the advantages, Quijada chose Colombia to shoot Mañana Antes Después.
“I didn’t want to bring anyone, no technician from abroad. I knew that in Colombia I could find a good, high-quality crew, and if the pandemic got tougher, they wouldn’t want to leave. We also had tax incentives and the support of government entities. And also Natalia, who I thought of as the protagonist since I wrote the project, was from here,” said the director, who shares the production credits with Chad Barager, Ian Ihnatowycz, and Diego Ramírez.
The Canadian, of Salvadoran descent, highlighted that the work of the Colombian production company 64A Films was essential to filming in the country: “I would literally be nothing if it weren’t for them. Diego Ramírez and Nancy Hernández, who are partners, have in-depth industry knowledge that allows you to sit back and do your job as a director. You know that you have a great team behind you making everything easier, allowing you to work free as a director.”
COINCIDENCES THAT ADDED TO THE HISTORY
Mañana Antes Después is set in Bogotá and its surroundings. Several of the scenes took place in the heart of the city, on the well-known Avenida Jiménez, which despite the pandemic, was beginning to get crowded. In order for it to be as desolate as possible, it was shot at dawn, between 3 and 6 in the morning.
For Quijada luck was on his side because the actress Natalia Reyes, the main character of the film, was pregnant at the time of filming, which gave the story more realism. However, this meant that they had to work against the clock: “It was shot in just 21 days, not because we wanted to, but because Natalia’s doctor gave us a deadline for the shooting. For me, pre-production is the most important concern and those time limits seemed crazy, but we sped it up and made it thanks to the work of the entire team.”
As if time was not an obstacle, the film was made twice, since it was shot in Spanish and then the same scenes in English. “I wanted to try out this, thanks to the fact that both Natalia and I speak both languages. I think this is the first time something like this has been done. They were two different interpretations and the result is interesting. Of course, you need a high-level actress and acting power to achieve it,” Quijada concluded.
