The world is familiar with the miraculous survival of the 33 miners who were trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days, five years ago. All of them were carried to safety in a tiny capsule called The Phoenix. Now their real-life story has been told by independent filmmaker Patricia Riggen in her new film, The 33.

The Mexican-born Riggen (Girl in Progress, Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna) talked about the difficulties of making the film. “Nobody wanted to make this movie, because it’s a drama about 33 Latino men, and that doesn’t get made often.”

The skepticism continued as she made the film in Chile and Colombia, under difficult circumstances. “They were shocked every single day. You know, they couldn’t believe I did this. They saw the [mine] collapse sequence and it’s like, ‘How did you do this? You’re a woman.’ And I have to tell you; it wasn’t about making an action movie, but really being able to portray the heart of these guys and what they went through emotionally. That’s what I brought to the movie, besides the big action sequences. It took, you know, real effort. And we ended up shooting 35 days, six days a week, 14 hours every day in the mine.”

Director Patricia Riggen setting up a scene in a mine

Riggen joked and at times was serious about how working and dealing with so much testosterone was a challenge.

The intense, action-packed drama was filmed in two Colombian mines that weren’t as deep and as dangerous as the Chilean mines. “Every single moment, we had the head of the mine with us.” She said. At times they would have to stop shooting so they could come in and remove a hanging rock. “It would fall, they would clean it up, and then we would continue shooting.” The above-ground scenes were shot in the Chilean desert.

Riggen met with each of the real miners individually, to get each of their stories. We see about 95% of those stories in the film. Riggen also included the real Chilean miners in the film’s closing sequence. She brought them all together on a Sunday to eat and celebrate each other.

L-r: Kate del Castillo, Angela Ortíz and Patricia Riggen
Photo: Urania C. Lippmann

“They are not doing well. They have PTSD; the mine owners didn’t compensate them—they got nothing. We’re all working really hard to be able to give them something back. They deserve it.”

The film has an international cast that has a large Latino presence in front and behind the camera. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, Mario Casas, Adriana Barraza, Kate del Castillo, Cote de Pablo, James Brolin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bob Gunton, Gabriel Byrne, Jacob Vargas, Jorge Diaz, Oscar Nuñez and many more. José Rivera wrote the story, which is based on the book, Deep Down Dark by Héctor Tobar.

There was even a little family included with Riggen’s husband, cinematographer Checco Varese as director of photography.

Watch our interview with the director and actress Kate del Castillo (Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna, La Reina del Sur) who plays Katty, the wife of Antonio Banderas character, Mario. The film is in theaters now. — A.O.