Amary Santiago Torres (Primera Hora) reports that Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have joined forces to create the new film La hija natural [Natural Daughter] by director and screenwriter Leticia Tonos. This project is produced by Ángel Muñiz (Ladrones a domicilio, Nueba Yol 3: Bajo la nueva ley, and Nueba Yol), Producciones Línea Espiral (Dominican Republic) and Isla Films (Puerto Rico). Filming will begin this month. Although many details have not been disclosed, the cast includes Julieta Rodríguez, Víctor Checo, Dionis Rufino, Gastner Legerme, and Frank Perozo. There is an unconfirmed rumor that René Pérez (“Residente” from the group Calle 13) will have a leading role. The team of resident denied this information. 

Actor Frank Perozo, who was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Dominican Republic, revealed that the storyline, which centers on a young woman in the countryside and the belief and imaginary of peasants, “develops into suspense and fantasy in a Dominican plantain field” and that “it is also an opportunity to appreciate a peasant culture that still exists beyond transculturation.”

Leticia Tonos first feature-length film focuses on the story of María, a teenager who is sent to live with her father after her mother’s death. Together they inhabit a haunted plantain field and face the “ghosts” of the past and present. María, daughter of a single mother, must come to terms with a previously unknown father who had only been present in her life as an absent figure that her mother had never forgotten. The film is dedicated to single mothers of the world and their children.

For full articles (in Spanish), see http://www.primerahora.com/diario/noticia/cine/espectaculos_asi/junte_caribeno_en_el_cine/370512 and http://www.severorivera.com/15/01/2010/leticia-tonos-dirigira-la-hija-natural-la-primera-pelicula-dominicana-con-una-coproduccion-puertorriquena/

Also see the film site at http://lahijanatural.com/