Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener

(Above: Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes)

For his first American movie, Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director of City of God, chose The Constant Gardener, a romantic political thriller adapted from John Le Carré’s novel.

“The chance to take on the pharmaceutical industry … motivated me to direct this movie,” says the Brazilian filmmaker. “The other reasons were the chance to shoot in Kenya and the originality of the love story.” Meirelles cast Ralph Fiennes as a quiet, detached British diplomat who marries a younger, more politically minded woman (played by Rachel Weisz) and—in the process of investigating her brutal murder—truly falls in love with her for the first time. “It’s a beautiful tale with lyrical and existential touches,” says the director.

Meirelles was intrigued by the character of a civilized, polite British diplomat who wants to know more about his wife’s doings but doesn’t because they have an agreement and he lives by that code. Meirelles says his movie explores “why a passionate woman like Tessa would be interested in a man like Justin.”

Commenting on the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil (and beyond), Meirelles notes, “Over the past several years, we have been making generic pharmaceuticals, and if you try to make cheap versions of patented medicines, you learn about the unbelievable power of the drug industry.” After reading on the subject, he realized “that making a film is a good opportunity to prod them. As a person from a developing country, I could represent the Kenyans’ interests.”

While Le Carré conducted extensive research for his book, Meirelles supplemented it with information obtained from well-placed medical contacts that fed him in “small spoonfuls.” Aware that critics might claim, “Big Pharma is too obvious a target for a movie,” he feels that, “evils need to be publicized as long as they exist, which is forever.”

Activists accuse such companies of ignoring innovation to develop barely distinguishable drugs based on proven “blockbusters.” Meirelles is devastated by their focus on what ails the rich Western world, like heart disease, baldness and geriatric impotence, while slighting and outright ignoring the unprofitable but rampant diseases of the developing world—AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

While these nascent nations bear an outsize burden of disease, they account for only a tiny fraction of the industry’s pro?ts. When all other arguments fail, industry spokespeople claim they’re not a philanthropic enterprise and that their responsibility is to their shareholders.

But Meirelles took a different perspective from the novel in his adaptation. “Le Carré wrote a story about a developing country and big business from the First World perspective, but I put myself in the other position and saw myself in Africa. As a person from the Third World, I identi?ed more with the Kenyans.” The Third World perspective also meant that numerous Africans were cast as extras, and 70 Kenyans joined the crew.

Meirelles views Kenya as the film’s “third principal character,” which necessitated location shooting. However, he recalls that, “Originally, we considered shooting the Kenyan scenes in South Africa, where there is a thriving film industry, but within hours we knew that we didn’t want to move from Kenya at all. There were problems of insurance and of perceiving Kenya as a dangerous place [which they happily dispelled]. We fought long and hard since it was clear from the outset that Kenya was where we should be.”

As he showed in his brilliant City of God, Meirelles is very concerned with the look of his films. With The Constant Gardener, he used distinct color palettes to highlight the disparate realities. Justin’s old British world is bathed in cool greens, but as he embarks on his odyssey—and Tessa becomes his door into the real Africa he’d been unable or unwilling to see—the colors change to warm reds.

But as with his previous film, Meirelles and his cinematographer César Charlone sought a gritty fidelity over picturesque imagery. “It was very important not to choose locations because they were more beautiful,” the director says. Using real locations and natural light, they were determined “to show the truth, to be as faithful as possible.” Whether in the story or the images, Meirelles has proven himself a skilled truth-teller.

To read Paste's review of The Constant Gardener click here.