‘Eva’ Director Kike Maíllo Talks Buzzy Art Fraud Documentary ‘El Falsificador’
variety.comHolly Jones With a knack for forming tight bonds with rightfully-elusive subjects, Spanish filmmaker Kike Maíllo, who shot to fame with sci-fi debut “Eva,” takes an engrossing and sympathetic look into haute-crime as it pertains to one of the world’s preeminent art forgers, Oswald Aulestia Bach.In “El Falsificador,” Maíllo hones in on the deviance, excess, and deterioration of a con, deconstructing a cult of personality along the way by following Aulestia Bach, a gifted artist in his own right, and two accomplices, Elio Bonfiglioli and Michael Zabrin, as they recount forging and distributing dupes of Picasso, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dali while raking in millions.Throughout the film, family members, reporters and law enforcement officials appear near-jovial while recounting the case and how much the international syndicate accomplished before the FBI caught wind of the scheme close to a decade later.
Presented by Filmin and produced by Playtime Movies, Maíllo and Toni Carrizosa’s Sábado Películas (“42 Segundos”) and The Mediapro Studio-acquired El Terrat (“Mira lo que has hecho”), the project marks Filmin’s first original documentary production.
Following its world premiere at theAtlàntida Mallorca Film Fest, whose on-site event it closes, “El Falsificador” will air on the network and in theaters this fall as a feature-length film, continuing as a three-episode miniseries in 2023.Ahead of the world premiere, Maíllo spoke with Variety about Oswald’s vivid personality, the nature of documentary filmmaking, and the oft-unjust U.S.
legal system.How did you gain such intimate access to Oswald and his inner circle?We immediately connected with Oswald and knew we had a commitment on his part to go all the way, that he was going.
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