EXCLUSIVE: Production begins this week on Néstor, a feature documentary about the life and legacy of the legendary Spanish cinematographer Néstor Almendros.
Almendros is one of the most important figures in Spanish and European film history. His credits as a DoP included big Hollywood titles such as Kramer vs. Kramer, The Blue Lagoon, and Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, for which Almendros was awarded the Best Cinematography Oscar in 1978. He was the first Spaniard to win an Oscar.
Almendros was also a longtime collaborator of European auteurs such as François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, and Robert Benton.
Laurent Bouzereau, director of the documentaries Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, JAWS@50: The Definitive Inside Story, and Faye, will direct Néstor. The doc has been written by Esteve Riambau and Josep Maria Civit, who is also serving as cinematographer. Oscar-winner Javier Bardem will narrate the doc, performing words that Néstor Almendros wrote during his lifetime.
The film is a Spanish-American co-production, with J.A. Bayona producing alongside Laurent Bouzereau, Belén Atienza, Markus Keith and Óscar Romagosa. The production has support from the ICAA and Movistar +.
Almendros was born in 1930 in Barcelona at the tail end of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, which forced his family into exile in Cuba. He lived through the revolution and was a victim of the homosexual persecution under Castro’s regime. He moved to Paris, where he found artistic freedom and became one of the great cinematographers of the Nouvelle Vague. Almendros passed away in New York in 1992 from AIDS.
The documentary’s synopsis reads: Néstor reclaims both the artist who contributed to transforming the language of cinema and the man who defended freedom in the face of the repressions of his time.
“Néstor has been a profound source of inspiration,” J.A. Bayona said in a statement.
“Behind his discreet personality there was an exceptional artist who changed the way we understand light, but also a man of great courage, committed to politics and the defence of LGBTI+ rights.”
Bouzereau added: “Néstor Almendros stands at the crossroads of politics, cinema, and identity. As a director, it is an honor to tell the timeless and inspiring story of a humanistic artist who did everything with a camera.”
Production is set to take place over several months in Barcelona, Paris, London, New York, and Cuba, all key locations in Almendros’s life.