Efraín Ruales ‘revives’ in the cinema with the premiere of the Ecuadorian film ‘Algoritmo’

In 2019, Quito and Ibarra served as locations for the filming of the Ecuadorian film Algorithm. This film based on the original idea of Rogerio moncayo, one of the directors, is also the last film that the Ecuadorian filmed Efraín Ruales. Ten months after his assassination, the production that mixes elements of thriller, comedy, suspense, action and science fiction premieres in the cinema chains nationwide.

“We are trying to get the cinema to rise again. Three and a half years ago, with a script and original idea by Rogerio Moncayo, about an adaptation of a stage in his life, we began to work and the opportunity opened to be able to put all the pieces together at the IFCI, before ICCA, so we put the script, we presented the project and, luckily, a very nice cast was formed, from Quito and Guayaquil, from television and cinema, we managed to win the award at the ICCA, in 2018. They gave us support of $ 100,000, plus a money that Rogerio Moncayo also took out and we managed to shoot it “, he explains Darío Leon, also director and producer of Algorithm. The production script was developed by Moncayo together with Gonzalo Estupiñán.

The film began filming in the first months of 2019 and although its premiere was scheduled for March 18, 2020, the pandemic changed the promotion and exhibition plans of the production. “The film is going to be in all the cinemas, in almost all the cities, they are giving us two, three and even four times a day. From what I understand, in 2019 that we shot with Efraín it was the last film he made, then they took him away from Efra this year, but there are brother Pablo Ruales, the mommy and the whole family attentive to the project, because they knew what was being done ”, adds León.

Algorithm shows the story of Trajan (Alfredo Espinoza) and his daughter Valeria (Jael Alulema), who live separately in the middle of the divorce process and alimony with their ex-partner Úrsula (Monserrath Astudillo). Father and daughter find fun ways to get together and spend it together, while he fights against a transnational company that intends to introduce a subcutaneous chip to the market and is led by businessman Martín Roldán (Efraín Ruales). This character, the antagonist of the plot, It will hunt you down and try to take all your possessions from you. The cast is also made up of Alberto Pablo and León, with a secondary character.

León also clarifies that Ruales’ intervention has not occurred through post-production effects or three-dimensional animation, as has been mentioned on digital platforms. “Efraín is the antagonist, he has at least 40% of the film, he would never, nor financially, have reached us to do something like that, he really shot with us and his character is a true villain,” he says.

Together with Moncayo and León they share the direction of the feature film Carlos Piñeiros and Víctor Jiménez. According to Leon, Algorithm is a family film that tells the life of a father trying to maintain his relationship with his daughter and who is upset by the separation from his wife. “Trajano is trying to collect his retirement, he has some land in Ibarra where he plans to build and spend his old age with his daughter, and the businessman appears who wants to take away his property because it contains the material they need to manufacture their product. It is the whole war that is presented to Trajano throughout the film ”, he details. Those experiences are based on what Moncayo went through, says León, during their separation.

“We are releasing the film in December, ten months later since Efraín, we have not made any crooked movement to try to get the film out immediately. In fact Algoritmo had to come out between January and February but in all cinemas, there are so many films to be released, they are trying to get all of them to be shown to reactivate all this (the sector). The whole family of Efraín Ruales knows what is happening, obviously there is a contract with Efraín and we as a production are obliged to show the film, not only because the Ministry of Culture and the ICCA require it because obviously they gave us money And this has to end in an exhibition, but there are also brands that supported us separately with financial incentives, with whom we signed agreements three and a half years ago and this had to come out before the pandemic. It was not thought, planned and we are not taking advantage of it. His family knows it, the channel knows it because we had also spoken with Ecuavisa, so that Alejandra (Jaramillo) knows, so that they know that we are not taking advantage of anything, ”said Darío León, director, producer and actor of Algoritmo.

Algorithm In turn, it raises the relationship of each user with technology and the ease with which information is delivered to the platforms that are downloaded daily and that they know, through likes, posts and saved videos, the preferences of each person. “This is not only for social networks but for all companies that through the algorithm, the mathematical formula that what it does is predict our tastes and our decisions based on what one chatters or clicks, because we are all somewhere they are stripped naked on a computer because of the information we record on a daily basis and that can also be misused ”, adds León. (I)