El Lobo Leton di Kārlis Lesiņš sarà coprodotto con la Colombia #finsubito prestito immediato

Latvian helmer Kārlis Lesiņš’s El Lobo Leton is a trilateral, cross-continental co-production between Latvia, Italy and Colombia. The administrator of the Colombian Film Fund, Proimágenes Colombia, is also supporting the documentary feature. Latvian producers Dominiks Jarmakovičs and Sergejs Timoņins share: “For us, the production of a film has always been about human relationships and new friendships being made along the way. It’s inspiring how the most spectacular stories can build bridges for the most unexpected collaborations. In this case, it’s the first Latvian-Colombian co-production!”

Currently in production, El Lobo Leton follows Wolf Ruvinskis, a Latvian who emigrated to Argentina in 1923. Barely recognised in his homeland, Ruvinskis, going by the pseudonym of “El Lobo Leton” (lit. “The Latvian Wolf”), was a celebrated wrestler, a popular football player in Colombia and a Mexican cinema icon, particularly in luchador films.

Lesiņš discloses that the research process has been thorough. According to the director, Mexican media continue to perpetuate the wildest legends about Ruvinskis even to this day, making it challenging to distinguish facts from fabricated fiction. “We plan to use these contradictory interpretations to our advantage,” says Lesiņš. 

He has plunged deep into Ruvinskis’s broad filmography, yet the archival work has presented some challenges – many films featuring him are either lost, unavailable or with only fragmented parts remaining. Additionally, Ruvinskis’s family is spread across different countries and has complex interpersonal dynamics. The director plans to interview and observe Ruvinskis’s children to address this.

Interviews will form the core of the storytelling. “We will employ the ‘talking heads’ approach – a technique often considered outdated in European cinema, yet still a fundamental aspect of the anglophone documentary tradition. I believe this approach is the most effective way to capture the essence of the interviewees through their speech, body language and visual peculiarities. These interviews will provide insight into the conflicting views on Ruvinskis’s persona,” explains Lesiņš. 

Alongside these testimonies, El Lobo Leton is shaping up as an eclectic hybrid documentary, also utilising archive footage and performative reconstructions. In the latter, the director intends to draw inspiration from Ruvinskis’s diary, in which he refers to himself in the third person. The narrative structure will leap between different periods and continents, creating a non-linear storyline.

As the film delves into Ruvinskis’s background, the personal narrative becomes intertwined with the political and social landscape. Lesiņš states: “By exploring the life of one individual, we can gain valuable insight into the history of a nation. Be it Latvia, Colombia, Mexico or Argentina, Ruvinskis’s life story serves as a lens [through which] to probe the history of each country during the time he resided there. We aim to connect the historical parallels with today’s reality.”

El Lobo Leton is backed by the National Film Centre of Latvia, and is being produced by Studio Locomotive’s Dominiks Jarmakovičs and Sergejs Timoņins, in co-production with Paula Moya from Colombia’s Vaivén Films and Leonardo Barrile from Italy’s Samarcanda Film. The production and research are taking place in Latvia, Argentina, Los Angeles, Mexico and Colombia. A recent expedition to South America lasted 33 days, with at least one more scheduled for the coming year. The release is set for early 2026. Additionally, Latvian public broadcaster LTV aims to air El Lobo Leton as a mini-documentary TV series.

Lesiņš, who is known for multiple locally acclaimed short films and his debut feature, Despair (2020), is currently also working on the Latvian-Estonian-Polish-German co-production Nord Express (with the majority producer being Latvia’s Mistrus Media), a documentary feature investigating the prolonged and confusing construction of the Rail Baltica railway line.