A Spain-Brazil-Cuba drama set inside one of Havana’s most recognisable buildings is heading into the market. “Hotel Nacional” has cast Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría — the face of the Oscar-nominated classic “Strawberry and Chocolate” — opposite Brazilian star Thiago Lacerda (“Seven Women”), Variety reports. The project is taking part in the Co-Production and Financing Forum at Iberseries & Platino Industria, whose sixth edition runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2.
The film
Lacerda plays Bruno, a grieving man who travels to Havana to reconnect with the roots of his late Cuban wife. There he meets Pilar, a Spanish doctor in the city for a conference and looking for an escape from her Madrid routine. At the bar of the Hotel Nacional their paths cross, and they find a confidant in Rubén (Perugorría), a veteran bartender who introduces them to a forgotten cocktail — “Between the Sheets” — that becomes the thread of their bond.
Writer-director-producer Diego Corsini (“Adiós Madrid”) is directing his eighth feature. He describes Rubén as a 60-year-old who has spent more than 30 years behind the same bar, his children abroad and his wife dead, with tourists serving as what Corsini called his “occasional friends.” The hotel itself, he told Variety, is “essentially another character in the film.”
Lead producer is Cinescalas of Spain, co-founded by Corsini and Mariana Cangas, with Brazil’s TVZero and Cuba’s i4films. Cinescalas has made close to 20 features across fiction and documentary in two decades, including “Pasaje de Vida,” “Candy Bar” (with Venezuela), “Lo que nunca nos dijimos” (with Mexico) and “Solo el Amor,” which sat exclusively on Netflix for five years.
Why the production risk is the story
The interesting number here is not a budget — it is the operating risk of shooting in Cuba during an economic crisis. Corsini is targeting early next year for the shoot and acknowledged the situation is complicated, pointing to growth in solar power and electric vehicles as reasons the Cuban leg can still be delivered. The production also has the official backing of ICAIC, the Cuban film institute, plus i4films on the ground.
For anyone who finances or acquires this kind of title, that combination is the actual due-diligence checklist:
- Local partner with a track record — i4films handling permits and crew in Havana.
- State-level support — ICAIC backing, which matters when access to a landmark property is the film’s premise.
- Precedent — films have shot at the Hotel Nacional before, so the location is not untested.
- Multi-territory structure — Spain, Brazil and Cuba spread both the funding and the release footprint.
- Contingency on infrastructure — power supply, in this case, treated as a production line item rather than an afterthought.
What it signals for buyers
Iberseries & Platino Industria has become the main annual meeting point for Ibero-American film and series financing, and forum slots are effectively a signal to streamers and distributors about what will hit the market in the next 18 to 24 months. A Spanish-language drama with a Brazilian lead, a Cuban icon and a Havana setting is exactly the profile global platforms have used to serve Spain, Latin America and the US Hispanic market from a single acquisition.
The casting is the leverage. Perugorría carries recognition tied to one of the most awarded Cuban films ever made; Lacerda brings Brazilian television familiarity. That is two distinct audience bases attached to a contained, character-driven story built around a hotel bar — a shape that travels well on streaming, where mid-budget international drama is judged on cost per completed view rather than opening weekend.
For Indian buyers and festival programmers tracking Spanish-language inventory, the takeaway is timing: if the shoot lands in early 2027 as planned, this is a 2027-28 delivery. Worth an early conversation at the forum rather than a late bid at a festival market.
Source: Variety
