Between the Moon and Montevideo

Lore & Background

The film was shot in Havana, Cuba in 1999 and premiered at the 2000 Fantasia Film Festival before a limited commercial release in 2001. Attila Bertalan stars as Tobi, a scrap dealer, alongside Russell Yuen as hustler Tony-Lee. The cast also includes Armando Fernandez Soler as El Señor, Gérard Gagnon as Louis, and Pascale Bussières as Juta.

Reader's Guide

Between the Moon and Montevideo received generally negative reviews from critics. Glen Schaefer of The Province described it as 'warmed-over Robert Rodriguez' with a plot that 'ultimately makes little sense.' Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail noted visual appeal but criticized lapses in cohesiveness, suggesting budget and time constraints. Stephen Cole of the National Post called it a 'fatally flawed curiosity piece.' Despite the critical reception, the film earned a Jutra Award nomination for Best Editing for Aube Foglia at the 4th Jutra Awards in 2002.

Did You Know?

• Aube Foglia received a Jutra Award nomination for Best Editing.
• Attila Bertalan both directed and starred in the film as Tobi.

The World and Its Inhabitants

Between the Moon and Montevideo transports its audience to a cramped, dusty asteroid wedged in the orbital space between Earth and the Moon. What began as a human mining outpost has calcified into a squalid colony where poverty and hopelessness are the default condition. The single lifeline back to the planet is a rocket controlled by a crew of Russian gangsters, who set passage prices so astronomically high that no ordinary resident could ever scrape together the fare. The sole exception is El Señor, the colony's self-appointed leader, played by Armando Fernandez Soler. Into this desperate world steps Tobi, a lowly scrap dealer portrayed by director Attila Bertalan himself. Desperate to reach his home in Montevideo, Tobi conspires with Tony-Lee, a quick-talking hustler played by Russell Yuen, to pull off a heist targeting El Señor's fortune. The plan draws in Louis, a brutal enforcer for the Russian gangsters (Gérard Gagnon), and his girlfriend Juta (Pascale Bussières), who, like Tobi, secretly longs to flee the asteroid's grinding misery.

Behind the Camera: Production and Release

Though classified as a Canadian science fiction feature, Between the Moon and Montevideo was actually filmed on location in Havana, Cuba, during 1999. Director Attila Bertalan took on the dual role of helming the project and starring in the lead part of Tobi, the scrap dealer at the story's center. The production operated under what critics later suggested were extremely tight constraints on both schedule and budget, a reality that may have shaped the final cut. After wrapping in Havana, the film found its first public audience at the 2000 Fantasia Film Festival, a showcase known for celebrating genre and independent cinema. A broader, though still limited, commercial theatrical release followed in 2001. The Havana setting gave the production a distinctive visual texture that reviewers consistently noted, even when they found the narrative uneven. Bertalan's hands-on involvement—directing and performing simultaneously—gave the project a singular, auteur-driven quality, though it also meant the film carried the full weight of one creator's vision from start to finish, with fewer resources to smooth out rough edges.

Critical Verdicts: Praise Amidst the Flaws

Reviews of Between the Moon and Montevideo were largely mixed-to-negative, though even the harshest critics conceded the film possessed flashes of genuine visual and performative energy. Glen Schaefer of The Province found the picture intermittently engaging but ultimately compared it unfavorably to Robert Rodriguez's work and to Touch of Evil stripped of its genius, criticizing a late-act betrayal he felt cheated the audience and a plot that, in his view, cohered poorly. Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail offered a more sympathetic reading, acknowledging the film's arresting visual spectacle while suggesting that Bertalan may simply have exhausted his time and budget before the shoot concluded, leaving gaps that had to be patched in post-production. Groen singled out Bertalan's on-screen presence—bald, compact, yet powerfully built—as an unexpectedly compelling blend of Bruce Willis and Wallace Shawn. Stephen Cole of the National Post was the most blunt, calling the film a striking but fatally flawed curiosity and noting that, apart from Pascale Bussières, the acting fell short of the material's potential.

Recognition and Afterlife

Despite its modest critical reception, Between the Moon and Montevideo did earn a measure of formal recognition within the Canadian film community. Editor Aube Foglia received a Jutra Award nomination for Best Editing at the 4th Jutra Awards ceremony in 2002, a nod to the technical craftsmanship that held the film's Havana-shot sequences together. The film's journey from a 1999 shoot in Cuba to its 2000 Fantasia Film Festival premiere and subsequent 2001 limited theatrical run gave it a cult-festival trajectory typical of small-budget genre pictures. For fans of Canadian science fiction and independent noir, the film occupies a curious niche: a genre-bending, visually bold attempt that reviewers described as a rough sketch yearning to become a finished work. Its legacy is less one of box-office impact and more of a reminder that ambitious, low-resource filmmaking can produce striking images even when the narrative scaffolding remains imperfect. Bertalan's distinctive screen presence and the Havana backdrop continue to set the picture apart from more conventional space operas, ensuring it retains a place in the pantheon of Canadian genre curiosities.