Venezuelan writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz has voiced his anger over his native country financing a film by Danny Glover's (pic) Louverture Films.
The South American country's government has given an extra $9 million to the film Toussaint, a co-production between Glover's company and Venezuela's film studio Villa del Cine, in addition to the previous $18 million it donated towards the movie's $30 million budget.
Jakubowicz, whose violent socio-political movie Secuestro Express annoyed President Hugo Chavez's government, feels the money could have been better spent on the country's needy.
"In a country with rampant poverty, a catastrophic health crisis and 14,000 violent deaths a year, President Hugo Chavez gives away our money for his friends to play with," said the L.A.-based Jakubowicz.
"I don't know if Mr. Glover's conscience lets him sleep, but he's certainly present in all my nightmares."
Glover's film concerns Toussaint Louverture, who led an 18th-century slave uprising in Haiti. Glover, a political activist of long standing, named his company Louverture after Toussaint, who will be played by Don Cheadle in the forthcoming film.