Two years have passed since the commercial premiere of the debut film by Zaragoza director Pilar Palomero, The girls. With his debut on the big screen, Palomero received a recognition that few directors have received in our country. This recognition, It has undoubtedly made it easier for Palomero to develop his next project in such a short period of time..
We find in The maternal, his second long work, some elements from his first production. Palomero returns to the terrain of childhood, although in a different social context. Yes in The girls took us into the life of a nun's school, Now we are fully immersed in another institution: a care center for teenage mothers. Here we will meet Carla, a fourteen-year-old girl who has become pregnant by her best friend. After being confined in the center by social services, Carla must face the difficulties of a transformation process, both physical and psychological, that will turn your whole life upside down. Next to him, She is accompanied by the rest of the girls who live in the center, social workers, and a mother with whom he had a difficult relationship and who may begin to understand. We chatted with the director about this production that is now in theaters. GERARDO LEON
After The girls, why have you chosen this project?
The maternal It comes up when we were riding The girls. So, Valérie Delpierre, what is the producer, She tells me that she had a friend who was a social worker and that she had told her about a residential home in Barcelona for teenage mothers.. She proposed it to me as a possible subject for a film and we went to pay a visit. There we met the director, to several educators, psychologists, etc. I was very interested in what we talked about and I saw that it was possible that there would be a movie, but I still hadn't decided. But, after a few days, Carol wrote to me, who is the educator who appears in the film, and offered to help me with anything I needed.. I stayed with her and, from there, we went deeper. It was she who introduced me to a group of girls who had passed through the center. The film is born when I listen to them and, above all, when I perceive in them a huge desire to talk, to tell what they had experienced. That's when the need arises to try to tell whoever saw the film what I felt when I met them and listened to them.. That is the origin.
It always catches my attention when it comes to building stories about other worlds that are not the author's own.. The maternal shows us a very particular context, that of a foster home. How did you feel that their stories concerned you to make a film that is so personal?? What was the script construction process like??
What happened to me with this project is that I had just done The girls what, without being an autobiography, I had a lot of myself. Celia had a lot of me, That nuns school was similar to the one I had gone to., etc. Let's say that I had spent many years looking inside myself and one thing that I liked when I started to meet the girls with whom I documented, It was precisely that they gave me the opportunity to do the opposite.: to delve into a story that was not mine and about which I knew nothing. The existence of these centers, How do these pregnancies occur?, It was a starting point that motivated me a lot.. But if, It is true that I was very afraid to tell something that I had not experienced.. At first I didn't feel entitled to tell the story., I did not want to provide a vision that was simply “touristy” or very anecdotal.. This is something I thought about a lot before writing the script.. The fears have lasted all the time, even to this day, but during the documentation process I established a relationship with them that has helped me a lot. It started with small talks for documentation and, little by little, we went to friendship. As time passed, I noticed that they placed a trust in me that gave me strength to tell the story. This helped me feel legitimate.. Thanks to the trust that they placed in me and the fact that later I have been able to count on them both in writing the script, like on the set, like now with the promotion of the movie, I feel with that peace of mind that I know that everything is done with the utmost respect and from a very honest place..
What do you feel you've learned as a director since your first film??
Well, I have learned to be aware that I really like directing actresses.. I had a great time. I also find the casting process really fun.. And then, although it is a common place, I have learned that it is very important to surround yourself with a good team, both on a professional and human level. I have felt super covered, I felt that there was a team that truly believed in the film we were making and that dedicated themselves to making it. That's beautiful. On the other hand, I have learned that you have to listen to your intuition. On a shoot you hear many voices that tell you things. You have to listen, of course, but then you must pass everything through your filter and listen to your instinct. And not only in the cinema, also in life. Many times you let yourself be guided by something they tell you and then you think, "Oh, "I shouldn't have done it.". At least, if you are wrong, let it be for you. In this film I tried to listen to myself a lot.
The character played by Carla Quílez stands out in the film., your protagonist. How did you find it?
The character is based on a girl I met during the documentation process. It was one of the first conversations I had with the girls and their story stuck in my mind and greatly influenced the script.. Something similar happened to this girl.: She had a friend who she got pregnant with., like through a game, without knowing what they were doing, His relationship with his mother was also very complicated., his mother had also been a very young mother, etc. The truth is that I have tried not to invent anything. Although there are things that are not based on this particular story, everything that happens to Carla are things that I heard during those talks. I have tried to ensure that everything the character experiences comes from reality.. I haven't invented anything, everything is taken from what they told me.
The film has a deliberately documentary style. Apart from the formal aspect, The construction of the dialogues caught my attention.. In that phase of going from writing to the screen, Is there some improvisation or was everything in the script?
It depends. All the dialogues were written, there was a very worked script. What happens is that, both in The girls like in The maternal, The way I worked meant forgetting about the script.. I always fix the dialogues in rehearsals, during filming, but then there is space for those things to happen that I wouldn't even think of writing and that, when I hear them, they seem brilliant to me (laughter). We are still making a plan, Someone says something I like and I include it.. But I already say that it depends. There are scenes that are nailed to what the script stated and others that are the same, but in which the dialogues change. Then, they [the actresses] They have put a lot of their way of speaking, of his way of being. There are things they say that are directly from them.
The film seems to be built or supported on a union of moments, more than a plot thread. Was that always the intention? How did you approach this challenge to make the story coherent in the end??
The final result is very similar to the proposal that was based on the script.. And the idea was that, Yeah. It is very complex to show a year and a half of a person's life in the two hours that the film lasts.. And if, are moments. Moments when I felt like maybe they didn't have a dramatic progression, but yes psychological, of the character, and how she faces what happens. I based the structure on that., in Carla's evolution.
Your film addresses many issues. There is the problem of motherhood, like a major conflict, but I think the big conflict your protagonists face is that, in the background, they have not stopped being girls.
Of course! For me that is very important in the film. The maternal It's not a movie about motherhood., because to make a film about motherhood I would have chosen a character my age. If you think about it, It is difficult to be a mother at any age. (laughter). For me the film is about being a teenager and being forced to be a mother.. They find out about their pregnancy when they are, as Carla, five months. That is the conflict that is generated: Seeing yourself destined for a motherhood that you have not sought does not mean that it is the time to carry it out.. That's the contrast between being a teenager, that it is a moment to look inside yourself, to build your personality, that introspective moment, and motherhood, which is quite the opposite: having to pour yourself into your son, have to give, have to take care of someone. They are two very contradictory vital moments that they have to live at the same time..
If we think about the circle that is fulfilled between mother and daughter, It seems that the film maintains that there are certain social contexts from which it is very difficult to escape..
Bueno, What I would like is for the film to show this, but that will lead you to the conclusion that, If we take this as a collective responsibility, yes it could. The fact that a center like La maternal exists does not solve the problem, but it is very important for the girls who are there. Whether these centers exist depends on our involvement as a society in the common good..
In the end, I thought that, In fact, and without making any spoilers, The maternal It's not just the story of this girl, but of a mother and a daughter in a process of common self-knowledge.
Yeah. I love that reading. I see the movie that way too (laughter).
