Carlos

Country:

France | Germany

Language:

English | Arabic | German | Spanish | French | Hungarian | Japanese | Russian

Also Known As:

Carlos - Der Schakal See more »

Filming Locations:

Austria See more »

Stars:

Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer and Alejandro Arroyo

The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting. 

Initially, Carlos was to focus on the terrorist’s capture in Sudan in 1994 and run only 90 minutes. However, once director Olivier Assayas agreed to make it and he conducted extensive research, he realized that there was much more to explore with the man and the times he lived in: "I felt it was the fate of one man and, in a certain way, the story of one generation, plus a meditation on time, history, fate and issues more universal than the specific history of Carlos".^[1] Former foreign correspondent and Le Monde editor Stephen Smith compiled the film’s research, some of which came from the files of intelligence agencies^[1] that became available after the fall of the Berlin Wall when files from former Soviet Bloc countries surfaced. Some of the film's dialogue came from tape recordings made by the Stasi, the secret police of the former East Germany.^[2] Made with a budget of $18 million, Carlos was Assayas' first foray into television.^[3] Originally, he was not interested in the project because it seemed "too crazy and too complicated".^[4] He was drawn to the project because it allowed him to make a film dealing with recent history and real people. He said, "not long ago, the idea of making a film about Carlos would have scared French producers, but nowadays I sense that we're being encouraged to make films that have a contemporary dimension".^[3] Actor Edgar Ramirez said, "What we’re trying to do is demystify him. This guy who supposedly had everything figured out was not as keen as he was said to be. The public and historical image was as history’s big manipulator but in many moments of his life, he was being manipulated".^[4]

Initially, Assayas was worried about finding the right actor to play Carlos because they need, "the shoulders and the charisma to carry this kind of movie on his back".^[1] Fortunately, he cast Ramirez who, like the real Carlos, is a Venezuelan and his family came from the same small Western Andean state. The actor described Carlos as, "a bit of a monster, a bit of a dreamer, a bit of an idealist, a bit of an assassin, a mixture of everything, full of contradictions, and that’s what made him interesting to me".^[1] The production was shot in seven months across three continents in countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Lebanon, and Morocco.^[5] The film was shot mostly in English-language with passages in French, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, Arabic, German, Russian, Dutch and Japanese.^[6] As filming continued, Ramirez put on 35 pounds in order to resemble Carlos's overweight physical condition at the time of his capture. The final two hours of the film were shot in sequence.^[7]

The 5½ hour version of Carlos was screened out of Competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2010.^[8] The series aired on Canal Plus in prime-time in late May 2010.^[3] In November 2009, IFC Films acquired all U.S. rights to both the mini-series and the theatrical version. The former premiered on the Sundance Channel on October 11, 2010 and was shown over three nights, while both versions received a theatrical release with only the shorter version available on video on demand.^[9]