"There is a lot of uncertainty": Edgar Ramirez on Venezuela's future

Washington, DC [US], January 14 : Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez has described a mix of "relief, fear and exhaustion" following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US forces early this month, saying the country now faces only "bad or worse" options for its future.

Since January 3, when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured by the US forces and transported to New York to face federal drug and weapons charges, Édgar Ramirez has been in a state of emotional whiplash.

"Right now I feel relieved, but also excited and fearful and exhausted," the Emmy-nominated Venezuelan actor tells The Hollywood Reporter. "There is a sense of relief that this terrible dictator has been taken out. But there is a lot of uncertainty. What people have to understand is there are no good, viable options for Venezuela. It's a choice of bad or worse," he added.

The developments have added urgency to Ramirez's latest project, 'It Would Be Night in Caracas', his first feature film as a producer. The film, which recently received an Ibero-American Special Mention at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, is set during the 2017 anti-government protests that resulted in nearly 200 deaths.

Directed by Mariana Rondon and Marite Ugas, the film is based on a novel of the same name by Karina Sainz Borgo. It follows "Adelaida (played by Natalia Reyes), a Venezuelan woman grappling with the death of her mother against the backdrop of a society in collapse. Adelaida returns from the cemetery to discover her apartment has been taken over by a woman aligned with the regime. Hiding in the apartment next door, she begins to realise if she is to survive, she has to leave everything, her country and her identity, behind and escape," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"The movie is showing us what it is like to wake up in a country you don't recognise anymore," says Ramirez. "There is no food, no medicine, no future. That has been the reality of Venezuela for the last 25 years. One of every four Venezuelans have left the country. This is unprecedented. The film shows what people, ordinary people, do when they are pushed into an impossible situation and forced to make an impossible choice. It is the tragedy of totalitarianism, where the entire social tissue is torn apart."

'It Would Be Night in Caracas' premiered at the Venice Film Festival and had its North American debut in Toronto.

"As an artist, I'm not interested in that, in sending a political message. I hope it's political only in the sense that it makes people aware and makes them care about what has been happening in Venezuela," said the actor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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