Venezuelan-American producer Elizabeth Avellan, whose work spans iconic films such as Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi, Desperado and Machete, the alien film Predators and the Spy Kids franchise, has completed principal photography on the supernatural thriller Bound, which Avellan is billing as the flagship of her new film. Canary Islandscinema center on base.
Directed by Venezuelan screenwriter and director. Gisberg Bermudez (“The Whistler: The Beginning”), “Bound” stars Oscar-nominated Demián Bichir (“A Better Life”), his daughter Gala Bichir (“Now and Then”) and brother Bruno Bichir (“Narcos”), marking the first time the three Bichirs have worked together on a feature film.
Also starring Ingrid Garcia-Jonsson (Seven Kings Must Die), Malena Gonzalez (Rabbit) and Michael Stobbe (Band of Spies) in a special appearance Paz Vega (Spanglish, Kaleidoscope), the film was shot over four weeks in La Esperanza, a wooded area of the island of Tenerife, and then one week in Austin, Texas, Avellana's longtime production base.
Construction of the Canary Islands-Texas pipeline
The English-language film is produced by Anaga Media Productions, a Tenerife-based company backed by Avellan, Bermudez and Gonzalez, part of the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), the benefits of which include a reduced corporate income tax rate of 4%, compatible with tax breaks of 45–50%.
On this basis, Avellan is building a series of Tex-Canarian partnerships that already includes Bermudez's previous work, the horror film The Return of Gara, which is currently in publication.
“Even though I spent my entire career in Texas, I wanted to be firmly invested in the Canary Islands,” says Avellan, whose Canarian great-grandparents emigrated from the islands to Venezuela.
“It was important for us to not just come here once, shoot and leave. We wanted to put down roots – build a company, keep coming back and make this a real hub.”
Elizabeth Avellan on the Canary Island of Tenerife
Time-shifting thriller about grief
Bound follows Louis Abrams (Demián Bichir), a grieving father, and his troubled 13-year-old daughter Ruth (Gala Bichir), who retreat to a rundown farmhouse after a traffic accident kills Louis' wife, Sarah (Vega).
Hoping for solace, they instead find the same house haunted by restless spirits linked to a tragedy a century ago, and their own grief becomes intertwined with that of another family from the 1920s, the synopsis states.
“It’s a psychological thriller, but it’s also a fantasy,” Avellan explains. “We're playing with what we're learning about quantum physics and how time isn't really linear. Two families, separated by a hundred years, are linked by tragedy.”
Through visions and time shifts, Louis enters the world of Anna Heller (Garcia-Jonsson) and her seriously ill son Ethan (Neil Gomez), who are looked after by Ethan's stern father Isaac (Bruno Bichir) and Rabbi Scholem Minda (Stobbe).
As Louis tries to help Anna and Ethan, Ruth's recurring dreams begin to overlap with Ethan's, suggesting that the children are sharing images across time. Beneath the genre frame, the film explores how both families cope with loss.
Training ground for local talent
Anaga Media Productions also serves as a training ground. Avellan, who has long worked with film schools and universities in Texas, is now extending this model to the Canary Islands. Speaking at a recent masterclass at the Cesar Manrique Education Center in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, she emphasized her commitment to local teams.
The masterclass is part of a wider program linking ZEC, Proexca, the islands' public sector promotion agency, and Canary Islands schools with the archipelago's fast-growing audiovisual sector, which aims to connect training centers directly with producers and service companies so graduates can move on to professional filmmaking.
With Avellana's arrival, the Canary Islands' film strategy takes another step forward, with professionals trained on the islands finding work on international films back home with a producer who has helped shape the presence of Latin American cinema in Hollywood for decades.
Return to independent cinema
Since the pandemic, Avellan has already directed six small independent films, part of a conscious return to hands-on producing and director-driven projects.
“I wanted to help some filmmakers get their shots,” she says. “It was great for me to be back in truly independent cinema.”
“Connection” is in post-production, and Avellan expects the film to be completed within six months, allowing for submissions to spring festivals such as SXSW, where she has submitted three different films in as many years.
Anaga is compiling a slate of thrillers, genre films and documentaries filmed in Tenerife, where Texas and Latin America are natural partners in both funding and talent.
For studios and streaming executives contemplating the Canary Islands, Avellan boils down his pitch to one idea: “You have seven islands where you can find just about any location you can imagine, plus stages on which you can build entire worlds.”
“Also, the culture here is so rich and there are so many stories to tell,” she adds.
Anaga Media Productions: Gisbert Bermudez, Elizabeth Avellan, Malena Gonzalez
