Even before a script has been completed or a single frame shot, Argentinian and Paraguayan officials have condemned Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming drug parable “Triple Frontier,” set in the border region of those two countries and Brazil.
Officials from the Tourism Department of Argentina and Paraguay have reportedly met and “agreed that [they] were deeply indignant when [they] discovered that this project seeks to negatively portray this region shared by three South American countries.”
“The concern is about the plot of this film as we believe it is being presented to the [audiences] in a negative way.” Paraguayan Tourism Minister Liz Cramer admitted. “We disagree with the film, we reject it.”
Seems a bit preemptive and harsh, right? When first announced, the film was described simply as being set in the “notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge — making ‘la triple frontera’ difficult to monitor and a haven for organized crime.” As no script has been completed yet and with nothing in the can, it seems that description alone has triggered this attack on the project, described as a Spanish-language “Traffic”-esque crime-saga that’ll utilize the “same raw and visceral visual style” as “The Hurt Locker.”
Will this cause complication in Bigelow’s plans though? Much of it, we think, lies in whether the respective governments of these tourism officials agree with their standpoint. Wouldn’t a Hollywood production from the previous year’s Oscar-winning directing and writing team bring more financial and economic benefits than any stigma on their tourism? Safety and South American travel seemingly don’t go hand-in-hand anyway and a fictional film probably won’t be much more of a deterrent than the already-existing stereotype; surely Medellin isn’t currently a top tourist destination in South America because of its safety record.
Brazilian officials, though, seem more than happy to oblige Bigelow. A representative of the Foz do Iguaçu’s town hall (the Brazilian region of the ‘Triple Frontier’) told the media his city was “prepared to help in any way necessary” and, in a potentially misconstrued comparison, that “New York has been destroyed many times in the cinema and this hasn’t damaged the city’s image . We have to keep an open mind.”
Shooting on “Triple Frontier” is set to take place on location next year with scripting currently being completed by Mark Boal.