Nostromo – Nostalgia Central

1 9 9 7 (UK/Italy/Spain)
4 x 90 minute episodes

This £10-million British, Italian and Spanish co-production assembled a first-class European and Latin American cast, including 15,000 extras, for a dramatisation of Joseph Conrad’s difficult yet rewarding tale of political, moral and social corruption.

Set in the fictional South American country of Costaguana (but filmed in Cartagena de Indias in Colombia) at the turn of the 20th century, the action revolves around Englishman Charles Gould (Colin Firth) and his attempts to exploit the silver from his family’s derelict San Tome mine, which was closed ten years earlier by a bloody revolution and was the scene of his father’s murder.

Helping him are his new wife, Emilia (Serena Scott Thomas), American financier Joshua Holroyd (Brian Dennehy), and the incorruptible chief stevedore, Nostromo (the dashing but slightly wooden Italian actor Claudio Amendola).

Following the highly lucrative reopening of the mine, Gould becomes a very wealthy man, and his affluence attracts the attention of President Ribiera’s (Ubaldo Enriquez) minister of war, General Montero (Salvo Basile), who later becomes the leader of Costaguana.

The prosperous mine has enriched the country, but greed inflames a military coup.

Albert Finney is magnificent as the brutalised Irish doctor Monygham, and Italian screen legend Claudia Cardinale stuns as innkeeper Teresa.

Directed by Alastair Reid and produced by Fernando Ghia, the miniseries saw production designer Francesco Bronzi set up three workshops in Colombia and employ 400 locals to build a railway, a harbour, two ships and the silver mine. The musical score was by Ennio Morricone.

The series aired in the US on PBS.

Charles Gould
Colin Firth
Doctor Monygham
Albert Finney
Emilia Gould
Serena Scott Thomas
Nostromo (Giovanni Battista Fidanza)
Claudio Amendola
Pedro Montero
Roberto Escobar
Teresa Viola
Claudia Cardinale
Joshua C. Holroyd
Brian Dennehy
Colonel Sotillo
Joaquim de Almeida
General Montero
Salvo Basile
Antonia Avellanos
Ruth Gabriel
Don Jose Avellanos
Fernando Hilbeck
Ramirez
Xavier Burbano
General Barrios
Ismael E Carlo
Hirsch
Alan Corduner
Don Pepe
Emiliano Diez
Father Corbelan
Nelson Eguerro
Sir John
John Hale
President Ribiera
Ubaldo Enriquez
Linda
Stefania Montorsi
Giselle
Romina Mondello
Don Ambrosio
Ruben Rabasa
Hernandez
Mario E Sanchez
Captain Mitchell
Paul Brooke
Giorgio Viola
Arnoldo Foa
Martin Decoud
Lothaire Bluteau