Technical data
- Title: RED GOLD
- Year: 1978
- Production: Producciones Carlos Vasallo, Producciones Esme S. A. e Ízaro Film
- Country: Spain.
- Direction: Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa.
- Cast: José Sacristán, Isela Vega, Hugo Stiglitz y Patricia Adriani.
Description and synopsis
We highlight this film above all because of its links with the Tenerife-born journalist, writer and inventor Alberto Vázquez Figueroa, who not only wrote the screenplay but was also the director (he only directed two films). This well-known best-selling author, one of the most widely read in Spain in recent decades, has strong links with Lanzarote. His mother was born on Isla de Lobos, a small island south of Lanzarote, and Alberto Vázquez Figueroa himself lived for many years on Lanzarote, where he has a house. In addition, several of his novels are inspired by the island, and along with the feature film Red Gold, Vázquez Figueroa was the scriptwriter for two adaptations of his books that were filmed on Lanzarote: the film Iguana ( 1989) and the television series Océano (1989).
Starring José Sacristán (a Spanish actor with numerous film and theatre awards) and Hugo Stiglitz as a supporting actor (a prominent Mexican actor whom Quentin Tarantino honoured by naming a character in Inglorious Bastards after him), the film tells the adventures and misadventures of a sailor who stops at Providence Island but is robbed and loses his ship. After the attack, the protagonist realises that the islanders’ aggressive attitude is due to the fact that they are being pressured by pirates who have taken over the island and trade in human blood.
Filmed entirely in Lanzarote, Red Gold includes a multitude of locations, demonstrating the versatility of the island, featuring urban spaces, volcanic landscapes and agricultural and maritime scenes. For the latter, Vázquez Figueroa chose not only large beaches but also ports, salt marshes, castles and lighthouses, but we would like to highlight, above all, two sites. On the one hand is the Villa de Teguise, Lanzarote’s first capital from the 15th to the 19th century. This has one of the best preserved historic urban centres in the Canary Islands, with monasteries, churches, castles, mansions, outstanding examples of domestic architecture and well-preserved cobbled streets. On the other hand, Red Gold has several scenes shot in the Jameos del Agua, one of the best interventions of César Manrique, Lanzarote’s most internationally renowned artist. A painter, sculptor and designer, Manrique intervened in several natural spaces in Lanzarote in the mid-20th century, leaving extraordinary examples of the harmonious integration of art, architecture and landscape. Endowed with great theatricality and solemnity, these spaces attract millions of visitors every year.
Jameos del Agua is part of one of the longest volcanic tubes in the world, which originates in the Volcán de la Corona (Corona Volcano) and ends at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. These large volcanic caves are formed when the lava on the surface, in contact with the outside air, cools and solidifies, while the incandescent lava continues to flow underground. Sometimes parts of these tubes collapse, revealing the entrances to these cavities, which are called jameos, a term believed to be of pre-Hispanic origin.
