Peanuts Entertainment Launches With Mirabal Sisters Drama

Peanuts Entertainment, a London-based production company focused on Latin American stories for international audiences, has launched with a flagship project: Alive In Their Garden, a Spanish-language period drama inspired by the Mirabal Sisters.

The company was founded by Dominican actor-filmmaker Amílcar Franco, a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Franco will next appear on screen in Gareth Evans' A Colt Is My Passport for Amazon MGM Studios and Orion Pictures.

Alive In Their Garden draws on the Mirabal Sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and three of whom were assassinated in 1960. The project was developed with Minou Tavárez Mirabal and Jaqueline Guzmán Mirabal and the Mirabal Sisters House Museum, and launches during the centenary year of Minerva Mirabal.

The film was shot entirely on 16mm with support from Kodak and Harbor, with the San Felipe Fort recreated in Central London during winter. Casting was overseen by Emmy-winning casting director Olissa Rogers, and the cast includes Karl Queensborough alongside performers from Spain, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.

Peanuts Entertainment's inaugural slate also includes The Peanut Vendors, which revisits the legacy of the Cuban song "El Manisero." It features narration by Alex Jennings, vocals by Christine Allado and a new arrangement by Marcin Mazurek.