Interviewed in 2016 , Chalbaud remembers the idea from the film coming from when he was told by someone , in some tellings , a friend , in others , a taxi driver , about a brothel called " El Pez que Fuma " , and how the name stuck with him so much he had to write a story about it . The filming took place in an actual La Guaira brothel , during the daytime — this brothel was destroyed during the Vargas tragedy in 1999 . Chalbaud spent time choosing the music over a two month period he was stuck at home with a broken leg , which gave him the opportunity to carefully select which songs he needed . In an attempt to counter the poor quality of sound recording in Venezuela , a French sound engineer was brought on board , but in the 1980s '' El País '' did say that the film " suffers from bad sound " despite this
Vargas tragedy
Vargas tragedy
El Pez que Fuma