Colombian writer Gustavo Bolivar’s internationally renowned novel-tele-novela Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso hit the big screen on Wednesday in the city of Cali.
Sin Tetas tells the story of a young girl named Carolina who dreams of having plastic surgery and is based on an account of a real young lady in Periera. Only in Colombia could a story pass from real life, to a book, to a soap opera, to film and back to real life again.
“The story is based on things that have happened in real life. In 2003, I met someone who is like the protagonist Catalina while we were on tour in Pereira. A young girl from the set said, I want to have surgery, I want to work in television. She was young. I told her she should study, but she said no, studying doesn’t help anything, I just want to operate. Girls who drop out of school do better than those that study. For someone else, this would just be an anecdote, but for me it was surprising to discover that there are girls who think studying won’t get them anywhere, but if you think about it, the girl was right, why study when if you kill someone you can earn 10milliones and for sleeping with someone you can earn 5, and when if you finish school, you have to work your whole life to end up being a messenger. The girl was right and this is what we are denouncing- an obsolete education system, a system with nonexistent opportunities…” said Bolivar.
During the casting, over 500 women from Cali, Pereira, and Medellin auditioned for the part of Catalina, a young school girl who dreamed of implants as a way to transform her life. Bolivar was seeking a young women who wanted surgery and the actress’s operation was covered by the film’s budget.
The film features Isabel Cristina Cadavid, a young woman from Cali who agreed to film a breast augmentation procedure on screen for the film, actors Juan Sebastian Calero and Francisco Bolivar, nephew of Gustavo Bolivar, playing the role of Byron, from the tele-novela Pandilas, Guerras y Paz.
“It was all of our vision to make the movie as real as possible. We want to send a message to young women that if they are going to operate, not to do it for fashion or to show off, but because they would like to raise their self esteem and hopefully, with professional surgeons and that they operate when they are at an age mature enough to make the decision”, Cadavid said.
Cadavid’s character suffers from complications due to surgery in the film, when her surgeon, who performs the surgery in exchange for sex, operates with used silicon. The actress stated that her life hasn’t changed much since the operation and has plans to pursue her goal of studying acting and English in London.
Though the movie contains dramatic themes including the narco lifestyle, sex, and plastic surgery the film manages to convey a dark humor while telling a dramatic story which is all too familiar in this country.
According to the Colombian Society of Plastic Surgeons, over 50,000 surgeries are performed in Cali annually, 85% of which are for women.
NBC has purchased the rights to the novella, which should debut in English at a later date. The novella has enjoyed sucess in Puerto Rico, the US, India, Russia, Spain and Italy.
The film’s official release date is Friday, September 11.