a woman, Paper, appears on screen. We don't know who it is. We don't know what's happening to him or who he's looking for.. We know, yes indeed, that that someone, whoever, either he hides from her or, simply, is not. Frustrated, Pepa goes to a nightclub where she spends the whole night drinking, dancing and drinking coke. At dawn, returns home. Then we discover that Pepa has a little daughter, Leila. There is also another woman, Ade, a friend, who reproaches him for the life he leads and for not taking care of the girl. Pepa defends herself or does not want to respond to the accusation. But Ade can no longer stand what we understand to be the last play that Pepa has done to him.. The last of many others before. Ade tells him that he can't take it anymore, who must take responsibility for a daughter he has abandoned. After a strong discussion, Ade made Pepa and her daughter from her house. Just so, Pepa will assume her responsibility. In a burst of pride, Pepa faces off against Ade, he takes his things and leaves. But Pepa has nowhere to go. Desperate, she will try to find someone to help her. But, as Ade, all your acquaintances, his boss at the nightclub where he works, her ex-boyfriend, They are tired of protecting her. A journey begins for Pepa and her daughter in which they will have to find a place to sleep in a beach city that closes all its doors.. But maybe what Pepa is looking for is not that.. What you are looking for is to know who you really are, recognize what you have done to end up like this, find yourself.
This is the argument of Or, first full-length work by director Júlia de Paz Solvas with which debuts in commercial theaters next 16 of July, film that would obtain the Silver Biznaga for best performance at the last Malaga Festival. G.LEON
I was looking at the press-book for the film and it caught my attention that, in the synopsis, refers to the experience of your protagonist as a story that points against a certain mythification of motherhood. However, It seems to me that Pepa's journey leads her precisely towards a reunion with her., with motherhood.
Yeah, we talk about motherhood, but our objective was to de-construct that myth of motherhood and defend that there is not only one type of motherhood, which is what is sold to us socially, culturally, politically, but motherhood is a human relationship and, therefore, There are as many motherhoods as there are human relationships between mothers and sons or daughters.. After all, yes we talk about motherhood, but to claim another type of motherhood.
In what sense did this topic involve you personally??
I have worked on it from the point of view of my experience as a daughter, with my mother. My mother is nothing like Pepa's character., but we do have a mother and daughter relationship, Of course. The story was born because, at the time, almost four years ago, We had to prepare a short film as a final project for the ESCAC (Higher School of Cinema and Audiovisuals of Catalonia). So, I met with Nuria Dunjó, who was the screenwriter, to ask ourselves what it was that we wanted to talk about. From there came two concepts, that were the subject of regret and abandonment, and we began to write like a diary about those two topics. Then, I came across a book called regretful mothers by Orna Donath, that talks about women who regret motherhood. I started chatting with my mother and we realized that in the mother-daughter relationship, These two concepts were very present in one way or another. From here, we started to build Pepa's character, who is a woman who regrets motherhood because she is forced into it without resources, without support and without references.
like you said, The film is based on a previous short film that already has this character as the protagonist. What led you to expand that story?? What did this new footage contribute to the story??
When we were writing the first script we realized that the topic of motherhood is a super-complex world., and the short film format was left to us, that, short, because there were layers of the character and even the theme itself that we could not allow ourselves to address because we opened many doors, but we couldn't focus on anything, and it would have been too abstract a piece. But the feature film thing appeared to us. We went with the short to the Ibicine festival in Ibiza and one of the prizes was that the production company La Dalia Films took one of the works to turn it into a feature film. We were lucky that they chose us, but it was not in our minds to turn it into a feature film either.. In fact, When this happened I was working on another project..
When one returns to something that has already been written, It seems that you are forced to rethink some things. In what sense has this story been expanded??
Bueno, It has given me the opportunity to deal with motherhood from other points of view or other layers., as on an economic level, on a social level, all related, also, with a woman with few resources in a society like ours. I also believe that the political discourse has taken more shape or more maturation.
There is something that stands out in the film and that is that you extract from the story all the background information that would explain the situation in which your protagonist finds himself.. You begin to understand that she is a woman who leads a certain way of life., but those explanations that place her at the point where she is at the beginning of the story are removed from the story and the viewer.. Why did you make that decision?? What did it allow you to explore in history?? I understand that it is a conscious decision.
Yeah, Yeah. In fact, to build the characters, The actors did have all the information and the past of each one. But we made this decision from the script because the objective, both Nuria's and mine, was to represent Pepa as if she were your neighbor, in the sense that you don't know much about her, you see it from a distance, but first of all, without knowing her, you feel with that power to judge her. The nice thing is that we have met many people who have told us that, at the beginning of the story, They hated Pepa, but in the end they ended up wanting to hug her. Is that, provoke the viewer to do this exercise that is done in real life: You see someone like Pepa and at first you can judge her as a bad mother. And what the film shows you is that you cannot judge without knowing what is behind it.. That's why we imposed this limitation on ourselves of not telling much.
This is something that also happens with space.. Just like you do with Pepa's past, you also deprive the viewer of knowing where the action happens. Evidently, for our culture, We recognize the context of that beach tourist area, but we don't know where we are. Yes, that Seville appears where Pepa comes from and to which she does not want to return., but you don't mention where it is located. It's kind of all the places, but, at the same time, no specific place.
Yeah, you said it perfectly. It's all the places. This can happen anywhere, That's why we didn't want to focus it on a specific place., because what we are claiming is that there are many Pepas and that we have to give them a voice, that we can find them anywhere.
There's something specific about that beach context, Vacation, which also has a socioeconomic implication. Was there something you wanted to explore in that sense or is it a casual element?
No, It is a conscious decision. First, the element of water is very important because it is one more character. In one of the key moments, Pepa cleans herself on the beach, but not only physically, but energetically. Besides, We also wanted to make a complaint about this way of selling Spain as a rich country.. But, although it is rich in tourism, there is great inequality. It is a wealth that focuses on tourism, but there are people who live with very few resources and are not taken into account.
It seemed to me that the film has a structure of road-movie. It is true that the characters do not move from the same place, but there is a starting point and a route. On that journey, things happen. What was that story-building process like??
Yeah, it's like a road-movie because they are two characters that are moving, only they make it to nowhere. We liked this idea of two characters that move, but without a goal or final destination, that van like wandering. That's what we were interested in.
Was it like this from the beginning or did you discover that it was necessary to give this shape to the story??
Yeah, it was first, We wanted to work with that narrative and pose situations like the ones we have raised.. I think that if we had decided on another narrative it would have also given us many things.. Simply, we decided to take that path. It's not that we compared and thought that this way we were going to find better situations.. I think it would have worked another way too., but we wanted to talk about a story like Pepa's, walking without knowing where, non-stop.
The film focuses on the bodies, especially, in Pepa's. It is a body that is not perfect and that is full of scars. What value did that element have for you??
Well, first of all, to say that we are not used to seeing naked mothers. Apart, we wanted to show a non-normative body. That's why it was decided that Pepa not shave., has its scars, their tattoos… we wanted to escape from the established beauty of women. It is another political or protest decision.
It seems to me that there is a dialogue of bodies between the mother and the daughter. What did that contrast or dialogue contribute to what you wanted to tell??
Above all, It was to show the most animal side of the characters. I think it is another way of communication between them.. I think the body is another space. Just as you can create a dialogue through voice, of the words, the body is another space for discourse, of dialogue, and it seemed interesting to us that they also communicate through the body.
Spanish cinema has a long tradition of social cinema. Have you ever made reference to Iciar Bollaín, I also thought of Fernando León de Aranoa. In what way has that tradition influenced you?? How do you relate to that context??
As I conceive, cinema is like a tool of militancy.. Each of my companions fights in their own way, but how I feel comfortable is through cinema. It is like a source where you can receive knowledge at all levels.. And this is what I find interesting., especially in Fernando León de Aranoa: this exercise of showing situations or topics that generate reflection and debate through its audiovisual pieces. I think that's what I feel connected to..
Tell us a little about Tamara Casellas [Paper]. How did you find her? How has working with her been??
She has a huge soul, and that makes it huge, also. We met almost six years ago on the set of a feature film. I saw her and felt a very strong connection to her.. The following year, I had to do a career project and I asked him if I could play the protagonist. Everything I have learned about direction, where are the limits, how to communicate, understand what the needs of the actor or actress are, I have learned it thanks to her. It has been a construction of the joint path.
