Garcia Bernal takes spotlight at Colombia film fest

Mexican actor, director and producer Gael Garcia Bernal was a star attraction here among cinema lovers at the Cartagena Film Festival.

The actor who played Che Guevara in "Motorcycle Diaries" and is attending the Colombian film event for the first time, spoke from his point of view as a producer about the dichotomy between Latin American movies and politics.

"Films can be transcendental or just entertaining, or they can move between the two extremes, there are no rules to make us do anything specifically. 

But in Latin America it's hard to divorce ourselves from political complexity in any film we do," the actor said Friday.

"In Latin America it's hard not to portray political, religious, social or sexual complexity, since human relations are full of all that. 

So it's incredibly hard to avoid the subject of politics," the moviemaker said.

He also said that compared with formulas that "succeed in the United States", the road to success in Latin American films is "personal expression."

"If you already have a real Julia Roberts movie, why would you want to make something like a Julia Roberts movie in Spanish if the original is better," he laughed.

The Mexican has been cast to succeed Antonio Banderas in the role of Zorro in the next production in the series, which this time will have a surprisingly futuristic look.

With regard to his upcoming role in "Zorro Reborn", Garcia Bernal preferred not to go into detail and would only say that "the news came as a surprise" and that he didn't know "any more about it".