A professional veteran and one of the great masters of the guild in Spain dies
La Voz de Almeria
By Evaristo Martinez
May 9, 2022
If the cinema is a factory of dreams, it is because, beyond the stars that feed it, there are pawns -anonymous, invisible, earthly- who turn into matter what one day was imagined in a script, was drawn on a 'storyboard'. And this Monday, May 9, the screen has lost, after a long illness, one of its great craftsmen: the carpenter from Almería, Fernando Contreras Usero, set builder and manager of Contreras Constructora Cinematográfico, based in Tabernas.
Contreras left a mark of his art, his passion and his dedication to the trade in dozens of feature films. Among the most recent, 'Exodus: Dioses y reyes' (Ridley Scott, 2014), with those spectacular sets built in El Chorrillo de Sierra Alhamilla, and 'Resucitado' (Kevin Reynolds, 2016), a film for which a fortification was built in La Hoya, next to the Alcazaba.
Winner of the ASFAAN Award (Association of Audiovisual Festivals of Andalusia) for his career at the International Festival 'Almería en Corto' in 2014 and the Filabres Alhamilla 2021 award from LA VOZ, in the Film category, for his work at the head of his company, Fernando Contreras was married to Mercedes Díaz, Councilor for Cinema and Celebrations of the Tabernas City Council , for which the Town Hall of this town is also in mourning.
"From Almería Western Film Festival we join the pain for the death of the great cinema builder, master of the great stages that have been created not only in Almería but in other parts of Spain. All our support for his family and friends in these hard moments. Our festival is left without one of its great collaborators who will always remain in our memory, "the Tabernas festival has published on its social networks after hearing the news.
Three generations
The link between the Contreras surname and the cinema shot in Almería dates back to 1945. " Fernando Contreras is one of the best carpenters that cinema has in this country , and if he were willing he could succeed in any other country, because the way he works and the speed with which he does it is wonderful," Anna assured in 2000 Vila, press officer for 'Honololu Baby' (Maurizio Nichetti, 2001), an Italian production starring the director himself, Maria de Medeiros and Jean Rochefort for which sets were erected in the El Cóndor fort in Tabernas. That year, Fernando Contreras Herrada opened in Tabernas what was the first carpentry workshop dedicated to the construction of domestic furniture and farming implements.
Barely fifteen years later , the first filming began to arrive in the province , so the family business diversified and the hammers were put at the service of celluloid in titles such as ' Lawrence of Arabia' (David Lean, 1962) or the westerns of the Dollar Trilogy -'For a Fistful of Dollars' (1964), 'Death Had a Price' (1965) and 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966)- by Sergio Leone .
Already in the 1980s, Fernando Contreras Usero took charge of the business and provided qualitative and quantitative improvements that managed to maintain its activity even in times of crisis. Under his direction, Contreras Constructora Cinematográfico brings together specialized work teams of carpenters, locksmiths, plasterers, masons, model makers, painters, sign makers, draftsmen and props artists, in addition to having a design team and artistic director on its staff.
"Fernando Contreras is one of the best carpenters that cinema has in this country, and if he were willing he could succeed in any other country, because the way he works and the speed with which he does it is wonderful ," Anna assured in 2000 Vila, press officer for 'Honololu Baby' (Maurizio Nichetti, 2001), an Italian production starring the director himself, Maria de Medeiros and Jean Rochefort for which sets were erected in the El Cóndor fort in Tabernas.
CONTRERAS, Fernando (Fernando Contreras Usero)
Born: 1945, Almeria, Tabernas, Spain
Died: 5/9/2022, Almeria, Tabernas, Spain
Fernando Contreras’ westerns – set builder.
A Fistful of Dollars – 1964
For a Few Dollars More – 1965
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 1966
The Shoe of Manitou – 2000
800 Bullets - 2002
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