'La Mula' Ongoing Woes Lead to Spanish Injunction | The Irish Film & Television Network

The Spanish/Irish/British co-production, ‘La Mula’ has, as previously reported on IFTN, endured a troubled production which, it would appear, is ongoing. The film, based on the novel by Juan Eslava Galan of the same name, centres around a soldier who tries to protect a mule during the Spanish civil war. ’La Mula’ has been in the works for over three years and the film’s shoot, which started on August 31st 2009 experienced problems when director and co-producer Michael Radford ceased production citing the failure of lead co-producers, Spain’s Gheko Films’ to sign co-production agreements as the grounds for his actions. The issue of the film’s financing has resurfaced now with reports that Gheko films have approached both the UK’s Department of Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) and Ireland's finance minister, Brian Lenihan, with regards to obtaining outstanding Irish and British funding that has been withheld thus far.

The film was initially granted funding of €500,000 from the Irish Film Board and £1.09 million from the UK Film Council who, in a release today, state that said funding is still available to the project pending the resolution of certain legal issues: "The position of Board Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board and the UK Film Council has not changed for over a year now,” it begins, “we remain committed to Michael Radford's film of ‘La Mula’ as a UK/Irish/Spanish co-production. Furthermore, we remain ready, as we always have been, to commit our production finance as soon as the necessary legal documentation has been signed by all parties."

The above funding was to become available to the ‘La Mula’ team before this point but, in order to obtain it, certain production agreements had to be signed by the production companies involved during production. Signatures were procured from Subotica and Michael Radford’s own production company, Workhorse Entertainment but Gheko Films failed to sign despite several deadlines being set.

The final deadline set for the Spanish production company was October 30th 2009, but since the agreements were again not signed Mr. Radford felt it necessary to delay finishing the shoot, which led him to leave the set in early November of last year. At the time Gheko Films' Producer Bruce St.Clair told IFTN that Radford had "no authority to stop the production. It is also true that the agreements that the co-producers wanted Gheko to sign were unreasonable." St. Clair added the particulars of the dispute were confidential but their “main and only goal is to finish the film with Michael.” Gheko Films’ Alajandra Frade has declined to comment on recent proceedings but Subotica’s Tristan Orpen Lynch tells IFTN that new legal proceedings have come into play: "Subotica and Michael Radford along with the UKFC and IFB remain committed to completing Michael's film,” he tells us. “Unfortunately, the film has been suspended pending signature by the Spanish Co-Producer of a small number of industry standard documents relating to the co-production. In the meantime the High Court of Justice in London has issued an injunction on August 2nd against the Spanish Co-Producers which is now being enforced through the Spanish Courts.

”Michael has written a beautiful script and his rushes are wonderful, we sincerely hope this will be resolved very soon and this talented director will be allowed to get back to work and we can finish the film here in Ireland,"he concluded.

Earlier this year however a Gheko Films spokesperson - Anabel Mateo of Relabel Comunicación - informed IFTN that ‘La Mula’ had been completed. She explained to us that the last remaining days of the film’s shoot were helmed by Sébastien Grousset (director of advertising campaigns including those of Seat, Volkswagen, Mercededs, Telefonica and Fanta) and she further explained that “the film has been edited by Teresa Font who started working under Radford’s direction until he left and then supervised by Gheko.”

In July of this year Gheko’s co-director Alejandra Frade gave IFTN her take on the signing of the (now infamous) co-production documents, stating that: “Both the co-production agreement (under the European treaty) and the Eurimages agreement were signed by Gheko under the circumstances that the UK and Irish co-producers both respectively represented that they could finance their shares in the film. Nowhere in the co-production agreement and the Eurimages agreement did Gheko agree to subsequently sign anything or enter into arrangements that would alter the terms of either such agreement against Gheko´s will.

“Particularly, in the agreements signed by Gheko, Gheko was not obliged to sign further agreements that would have curtailed Gheko´s rights and/or caused it commercial prejudice, that would have made Gheko the guarantor of the debts and duties of the other co-producers with money originating from Spanish and European public bodies that was destined for payment on Spanish costs (such arrangement on its own would have amounted to a criminal activity under Spanish law), and that would have obliged Gheko to pay off a loan in favour of the English and Irish co-producers via the making of a payment into an English account without any guarantee that the corresponding loan would provide for the return of funds to Gheko. For these reasons alone Gheko was justifiably unwilling to sign the financing documents that were variously presented to it.

“It is surprising to read that Mr. Lynch blames me for finishing the shoot. At least we have a finished film for the benefit of all the co-producers. To try to stop a shoot when only 5 more days remain… That is a very strange thing to do specially by an experienced co-producer such as Mr. Lynch.”

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