Franck Gastambide talks about the shooting of “Medellín”

Franck Gastambide belongs to this category of artist who touches a bit of everything, at the same time actor, producer, director and screenwriter. His choice is precisely not to do so. This is the Canal+ web-series, Kaira Shoppingwhich propelled him to the front of the stage and under the spotlight in 2009. A fine career for this enthusiast and specialist in molosser-type dogs who was recruited as a dog trainer for the filming of the film The Crimson Rivers in 2000, which allowed him to set foot in the seventh art with Mathieu Kassovitz.

>> With Franck Gastambide, new volunteer at La Chorba

Will follow films as a director Pattaya in 2016, Taxi 5 in 2018 or the series Valid in 2020-2021. This Friday, June 2, 2023, Franck Gastambide releases his new film Medellin on Prime Video. It’s an adventure comedy filmed in Colombia with Ramzy Bedia, Anouar Toubali, in Medellin itself, with guest-star Mike Tyson himself.

franceinfo: What an idea to shoot in Medellín with Mike Tyson!

Frank Gastambide: Yes, only cinema can allow us to do things like that, to realize dreams like that. And what an adventure! To leave with my friends Ramzy, Anouar and to find Mike Tyson in the depths of Colombia, it’s quite crazy, even when I mention it.

It is the story of a kidnapping, that of a little brother with drug traffickers from the Medellín cartel as kidnappers and as big brother, played by Ramzy Bedia, a man determined to bring the little one home. What gives them all the energy, the determination and the courage too is the importance of bonds, family, friendship and really loyalty.

Yes that’s it. I wondered what would happen if someone close to me was abducted while on vacation, for example in Latin America. What would I do ? Would I wait for the French State to take care of its relations in order to be able to free him or would I try to do like the character of Ramzy, that is to say, to put together a team and go find it ? It sounds completely insane and it was a great playground for a comedy.

For four months, you shot in Colombia. You went to meet the Colombians in very special neighborhoods which, of course, still bear the scars of Pablo Escobar’s passage. What is amazing, by the way, is that the Netflix series put him on a pedestal and at the same time his son, Juan Pablo Escobar, was very unhappy with this series, considering that his father should not be carried to the skies, far from it, that he deserved precisely that we take the time to say that what he had done was not good. That’s what you do in the movie!

Yes. I’m even going to tell you an anecdote that made me uncomfortable because we were extremely well received by the people of this Barrio Pablo Escobar where no one has ever made a film. I was very proud to be there. People were very proud that we were there and at the same time, I felt like I was deceiving them sometimes because I wasn’t going to make a film glorifying Escobar. It is even the opposite that I say. I say that this fascination for this man is an aberration. We were welcomed in this Barrio that it was difficult to leave it at night. We stayed with these people, we discovered the kindness of another culture. We really loved being with them and I kinda felt like I was cheating on them because sometimes they asked me, “But Franck, do you like Pablo?” and I did not want to disturb them. so I answered: yes, yes, whereas obviously not. But I cannot go against the indoctrination in which they grew up. In any case, I lived in a paradox to be with lovely people that I felt like I was cheating on, when the truth is, I think they are the ones who are wrong.

I would like to talk about you. You entered the cinema thanks to your passion for dogs, you were a dog trainer at the base. Where does this passion come from?

My passion for dogs probably comes from an emotional lack.

Franck Gastambide

at franceinfo

I discovered much too late that I had invisible disabilities which are dyslexia first, dyspraxia, which is a learning disability, dyscalculia which is a number learning disability, and dysorthographia which , as the name suggests, is about spelling. So basically I had the whole thing: lettuce, tomatoes, onions and before I found that out, I kind of felt like a fool. That I was the one disappointing his parents. And I discover in the relationship with animals first non-judgment and then I develop feeling, instinct which are essential things for the relationship with others and also for the relationship with animals. And for the first time, I am competent and capable of something. The animals clearly saved my life.

It is they who suddenly attract you to the seventh art with this collaboration on The Crimson Rivers and this meeting with Mathieu Kassovitz. You become friends very quickly.

Me, I was born in the depths of Melun and so it took me a while to tell myself that maybe I could be part of this somewhat crazy world of cinema.

Franck Gastambide

at franceinfo

Yes. It’s quite crazy because Mathieu makes me understand without realizing it, that finally, this environment which seems to me to be completely inaccessible, where I have the impression that everyone arrives by helicopter and lives in palaces. Finally, maybe I could have a place there. So between the time I had this discussion with him and now, more than 20 years have passed. The path is longer than if I had been born into an artistic milieu. My professional ambitions would have been completely different if I had been born into a family of directors or people who work in the cinema.

Is writing a nice revenge on life anyway?

Oh yes ! Well, I think that if my French teachers knew that I am paid a lot of money to write screenplays now, they would find it completely absurd. But that said, I don’t blame anyone in the school system and I don’t blame any of my teachers who thought I sucked because I thought I sucked too. So here I am.