The screenings of the Official Section in competition for this new edition of La Mostra de Valencia began with two feature films with short titles, but very ambitious in terms of its execution, formal expectations and plot.
Con Mosquito, second feature film by Portuguese director Joao Nuno Pinto, we moved back in time to the First World War. In this context, a young soldier, Zechariah, He embarks for Africa to confront the Germans. Zacarías' patriotic dreams had made him imagine that he would fight in the French trenches., but “bad fortune” had to drag him to Mozambique, one of the colonies that your country still treasures on the African continent. Not happy with that, the young man's karma will still have to play another trick on him. Sick of malaria as soon as he set foot on land, Zacarías is left behind and disconnected from his company. But all is not lost and, recovered from illness, the warrior ardor that inspires his heart pushes him, against the advice of his superiors, to find his patrol mates and join, So, to war. Accompanied by a local guide and hunter, Zacarías begins a delirious journey through the African savannah that will lead him to question many of the values and prejudices he had about his own identity., the cultures you are going to know and, above all, What does “serving your country” mean?.
“The story is inspired by real events because it is the story of my grandfather. My paternal grandfather, that I never knew, when I had 17 years he wanted to go to war in France, to fight the Germans. But he was sent to Mozambique, he fell ill with malaria, y, in the end, he left alone. “That whole part of the story is real.”, the director commented, Joao Nuno Pinto, at a press conference. "But that's an anecdote.". We wanted to give another meaning to our history, a meaning of learning and evolution that I believe my grandfather did not have. My grandfather did all that, but it didn't change, continued with his mentality. But, for the things of this trip, My father was born in Mozambique and I was born in Mozambique. My interest in wanting to tell this story is to understand my past and the origins of my African roots., that come from a place that has to do with colonization. That's one of the reasons for the story.".
Of the confrontation against that colonial past, the title of the movie itself appeared, whose meaning establishes the coordinates in which the director's intentions move. “Mosquito is this insignificant insect, wee, that you can crush and kill it, but he can kill you too. Zechariah is also this insignificant young man, fragile and tiny. But with a weapon and the suit of the imperial army he becomes a very threatening and deadly figure.", explained Joao Nuno after the first screening of the film. “That is the figure referred to in the title. And this is so much for Zechariah, as for Portugal, what is a country, compared to the rest of the world, insignificant, wee, but when it had a colonial empire it did a lot of damage for the world.”
Mosquito is articulated, in this way, about what Nuno defines as the classic hero's journey. A trip in which the destination does not matter so much, like what he finds during the long journey he is going to travel. Zacarías' journey could be defined as a spatial and sensory retreat, from civilized Europe, our Europe, to the origins in that Africa that is the mother and origin of everything. Mosquito he proposes to us, So, that we review our schemas about what is right or wrong, and it is offered as a tool against that thing called borders that divide the world into artificial lines and that are, In fact, barriers that stop understanding. About what? From the other, comments the Portuguese director. “I was born in Mozambique and my family went to Portugal when I was five years old.”. And in Portugal they called those of us who came from the colonies, the returnees. And it confused me that, with five years, They would call me returned because my land was Mozambique, with what, if I returned to some place, it would be to Mozambique, not to Portugal”. Es, at this point in the narrative, when the personal or biographical becomes a universal story that involves us all. That is the effectiveness of fiction. “It is a question of identity. The first time I returned to Mozambique, after the civil war, I already had 25 years. It was like returning to the womb.. But, at the same time, I am white European. I mean, I am not black with black African ancestors. So, where do I fit? This has made, from very early, my place is the world. Yo, that I am not one hundred percent from anywhere, I am everyone's. And that question of acceptance of the other, It doesn't matter where you were born or the color of your skin, “For me it was always very important.”
This look towards the past is projected towards a present that Joao Nuno Pinto wanted to capture and that is evident in many of the formal decisions he has made for the film.. This is the case of the use of music, where tribal dances are mixed with electronic rhythms in a combination, at least, different, but that does not break the scaffolding of the story. “I was worried that, because it is a historical film, headed only to the past. And I wanted the audience to relate to the film., that today's young people would look at this young man and identify: mira, that could be me. Of course all the characters have the morals of their time, They don't have the morals of today. But his humanity is from today. For me, work the language of the film in a contemporary way, modern, It was very important to bring the story to the present, and music brings that element. It allows me to work on the emotions and density of the film, because you can see the images, but it is the music that penetrates you in terms of sensation, of emotion. I wanted you [The movie] talk to your stomach, with the guts, a deeper thing, less intellectual.”
Thus, Zacarías' journey becomes the journey that the spectator himself undertakes in the seat. “For me it was very important that the audience placed themselves at the feet of Zechariah. The entire look of the film is that of Zacarías. He is present in all scenes. We see what he sees, We do not see what he does not see and I do not give you tools to understand what he is not understanding.. That's why I don't translate what they say to him when he arrives at the women's village. [where the character ends up taking refuge at a stage of the journey]. That's when the movie turns around. The oppressor becomes the victim and the victim becomes the oppressor.. It's about putting yourself in someone else's shoes., which is something we have a lot of difficulty doing: understand the other, what has happened to the other. Then, I reverse the roles so that you feel like Zacarías. “I was interested in making this reflection.”
Con Children, debut feature by director Antoneta Kastrati, we entered, in this first session, in another space, another place, in another war. a war that, like that of Mosquito, it's already happened, but whose painful consequences are still felt today. We talk about the Kosovo conflict. on this tape, The shots and the sound of the bombs seem to have become silent, but his memory has been burned into the minds of those who suffered the loss of their loved ones.. This is the case of Lume, a woman who lives on a modest farm next to Ilir, Your husband, and her meddling mother-in-law. Lume and Ilir try to have a child, but, for some reason, she can't manage it. Far from accepting this reality, the couple tries by all means to complete the conception, all under the obsessive and watchful gaze of Ilir's mother who resorts to any method to try to bring about the "happy" outcome.. This includes visiting healers and all types of enlightened ones.. But, although Lume resists her mother-in-law's defeated ideas., Things reach an unbearable limit when she discovers his plans for his son to marry another younger woman with whom he can have the child they say they want..
The first thing that catches your attention Children It is that confrontation between tradition and modernity that the film offers. after the war, Kosovo society seems to have evolved towards a state where magical elements and superstition have taken over its culture.. Faced with horror, people take refuge in the comfort offered by a magical explanation of reality. "They [Kosovar los] They have a very long tradition, similar to that of the Greeks, for that part they have of believing in fairies, in the magic of the forests. Forests are also places where people go to die, like in Japan”, commented Miguel Govea, one of the producers of the film, after the first of the festival screenings.
That magical element, That struggle between rationality and deceit permeates the entire film., a work that moves between the magical tale and the realistic story. Leaving aside certain image resources (use of angles and use of the color palette) to differentiate both extremes, The success of this mixture is found in a script that knows how to carry both weights with remarkable balance. So, The two elements are perfectly intertwined so that, on many occasions, the viewer does not know exactly where he is. In the dreams that Lume has as a result of the tension she suffers from not getting pregnant, beings from reality appear. On the other hand, Everyday life is full of elements so disturbing that they could have come straight out of a nightmare..
But if you focus on something Children It is in the role that women play in this society and in a generation that tries to overcome those wounds of war and organize life in another way.. to it, The generation of their elders opposes them through a matriarchal culture that establishes the guidelines at all times and that suffocates like a noose around the neck.. Lume and Ilis try to overcome their difficulties. To achieve it, They have to face that past that everyone seems to want to hide, hiding the marks of tragedy. To defeat your bad dreams, Lume must remember, take the loss. A ghost that floats all the time over her and over the small community in which she lives. That ghost returns, again, to the director's own experience, Antoneta Kastrati, and his sister Sevdije Kastrati, director of photography for this work, as its protagonist, They also suffered the horror and loss as a result of the war. “It is a very personal and intimate film for them because, when his sister and mother die, public displays of affection could not be made, public displays of mourning could not be held, wakes, nothing. That, If you were lucky and they didn't put your people in a mass grave. There were people who went to see the graves to check if the relatives were there.. In fact, one of the images that appear in the film, in the video [who sees Lume], It's a real recording. And many found out about what had happened through the news.”, explained producer Miguel Govea. “For them, It's the way to make a fairy tale for your mother and your sister and, at the same time, It's a message in a bottle, how to say: please, "Let no one go through this again.".
This intention to definitively close the wounds of the past seems to have transcended the screen and has been transferred to the experience of the film itself once it has been screened at different festivals and in commercial theaters., in both Albania and Kosovo, countries faced by war and united, now, for the cinema. “Something very interesting happened with this film.. First is that it is a co-production between Kosovo and Albania about the conflict”, the producer commented to the press. “This movie has many script versions. When the conceptual part was developed, the two film centers were not happy to work with each other or with the project. But, during the development process, there began to be more approach and, in the end, was approved”, points out. “How does that reflect the political situation at the moment?”? When we finally managed to do the premiere in Toronto, both Kosovo and Albanian viewers decided to support the film completely. Then, They decided to release the film in Kosovo. In Kosovo there are approximately thirty screens. Our movie, that competed with other more commercial films, was number one for eight weeks in a row. In Albania it won the Best Film Award at the Tirana festival. A film from Kosovo has never won the Tirana Film Festival, and that was a sign that they were proud. It went from being a project that seemed dangerous to one that they believe has helped and continues to help people have conversations about the effects of war., the conflict and the thousands and thousands of people who were affected by it.” G.LEON
