Evening falls over the mountains of the Sierra del Caurel, in the province of Lugo, Galicia. The wind strongly stirs the leaves of the trees, the water of a stream flows smoothly, living nature, witness the dramas of men who scream in the distance: ¡Albaaaa! The night comes and, armed with flashlights, a party of men searches, among the darkness of a moonless night (or perhaps hidden among the thick clouds that, it is guessed, cover the sky), to the one who answers to that name. someone screams again: ¡Albaaaa! Nobody answers.
This is how the first feature film by Galician director Diana Toucedo begins, which she will present to the Valencian public this Tuesday in the Luis García Berlanga room at La Filmoteca.. A work that travels through several worlds, or maybe it is between them, that of the living and that of the dead, that of documentary and fictional work. In a small village, life happens between domestic tasks, The work, everyday worries: children go to school, The grandmother plucks a chicken while preparing a cauldron that hangs from a hook on the roof of the shed of the house, men go hunting, women gather at the entrance of the house and comment on how much things have changed, the customs. It is not easy to describe in a few words what may resemble the plot of this film.. Thirty lightsIt is the portrait of a world that, if you don't take care, can disappear, It is the inventory of their rites and traditions, but, above all, It is a door between those two worlds, this and the other, the one from beyond, between the past, the present and the future, between those who are still there and those who have already left or, better, among those who, although we don't see them, they still remain among us. and around, the imposing presence of mountains that watch over everything, guardians of this small rural community. There's no other way to describe it.
¡Albaaaa!, they scream, again, desperate. And everything begins... Or ends, depending on how you look at it.
“It was the second of November, at night", a voice-over tells.
The first question comes from the title of your film., Thirty Lights. What does it refer to?
Yeah, The truth is that it is a title that people often ask me about because it does not have a literal or obvious translation that you can directly relate to the film. And it is because the literal translation in Galician of the term “lume” is “fire.”, but in that area where I've been rolling, in the Caurel, They use it a lot to designate those houses that are still open, active, with life and with inner fire. I thought it was a very nice term and very appropriate to work with in the film because there are only thirty children in that area.. These children could represent those houses or those spirits with inner fire that make that area resist the passage of time..
Thirty Lightstells us about the relationship between life and death. It is said that in our contemporary societies this relationship is a bit removed from our lives.. I don't know if your film was looking to play a role in that area..
Yeah, absolutely. For me it was very important to talk about how we build a perceptual world., sensorial, but also beliefs, ideological and, in these moments, very rational, where there are certain things that have no place. In this case, It was a bit of that belief or struggle., more or less symbolic or metaphorical, that always exists between life and death, and how can we think about that threshold terrain, what happens in the transition from one stage to the other. One of the things I wanted to address was that relationship that I had had because I was from Galicia., for all the traditions that I have lived, due to inheritance and family beliefs where death is not conceived as an end, but as a transformation, transfiguration or transmutation into something else; that other state where things don't end, they don't disappear, but they transform. With these ingredients I wanted to propose to the viewer a journey through their own perceptions., by questioning them and how he or she can understand the world around them and, above all, that life and that passage to death, without having any certainty of what it is like.
The other element that interested me and that I understand is in the film is the relationship between the magical and the real.. In our cultures we have radically separated ourselves from the possibility of seeing the world from a magical perspective..
Yeah, fully. and for me, in that aspect, Galicia preserves many traditions, stories and rituals that are still in tune or union with that most magical and fascinating universe that can also be the world of the imagination, of the spiritual, of the esoteric, even. And how all this is less and less present in our absolutely technical lives, technological, where it seems that everything that exists is what you touch and see, when, curiously, We are in a digital age where we may be living with more ghosts than ever..
In this sense, The mix that your film proposes between the world of Catholicism and other more primitive or pagan practices is very curious., how both traditions coexist to the point, it gives me the feeling, to mix.
Yeah, It's something I observe a lot.. Everything that is Christianity has sunk its roots in the most intimate part of the individual.. Many of our daily rituals and beliefs and perceptive universes and understanding of the world have to do with what is instilled in us or that truth that is transmitted to us from Christianity.. But one of the things that interested me about this territory in which I was filming is that, in a very visible and palpable way, there were still very pagan elements, closely linked to the land, with nature, with everything that imposes vital cycles and rhythms on us. Formerly, More primitive or original settlers could have a more direct relationship with all those forces and elements of nature as magical elements with which to live and with which to ritualize so that they could bring us goods or good things.. That is still valid in this area. I thought it was very nice to be able to portray it as an act of resistance., the fact that, if preserved in the film, It can also be kept in some space so that they do not disappear..
Regarding what you say (and I make this comment with caution because I don't know if it is something that I have wanted to see.), It seems that the film focuses on the presence of the four elements, that of fire, the earth, water and wind as the essence or matter of living things. What does this mean for you and in the film??
No, no, great that you saw it! But, again, It's because of what I just told you. If we summarize our relationship with the world, we can do it in those four original elements. I really like to think that there is a very special or unique way of relating and understanding the world in which a wind and a rain can speak to us., can transmit an emotion to us, can make us enter a more interior or more reflective universe, or exterior and contemplative. Not being immune or not being passive in the face of these natural elements was also one of the issues that I wanted to show very clearly through the film..
The movie, as you mentioned, pays tribute to a world that, If it's not about to disappear, stands very fragile, even though it is projected on new generations. Where does this need to claim it come from??
Bueno, When I started the film I had been living in Barcelona for quite some time.. I had come to study cinema at the ESCAC and, after many years, I wanted to question certain identity things again, of tradition, of inheritances, who I was based on everything that had shaped me since childhood. This was on my mind quite a bit and when I wanted to start the film I found the Caurel as a place where a lot of my memories were still active., many of the oral stories that I had heard from my grandparents, a latency like from a past world, but what, at the same time, live with a present and a future. On the other hand, there was the management of time and the passage of time, and how it erodes and transforms things. All of this contained the perfect ingredients to make a movie.. For me it was a very important starting point.. It's like I believe in the power of cinema: from the personal, of the individual, of everything that is born from a deeper place within you, but with which you can connect and make stories much more universal.
One thing that interests me when I talk to directors like you, that you have a career as an editor, is that in your film there is an important relationship between the time of the narration and the time of the look and the events that are told.. Is it something that you specified after filming or was it something that was in the origin and that you were developing??
Yeah, As an editor, the question of time is something that constantly obsesses me in any project I work on.. Sometimes, When you don't know much about the profession or imagine how to make a film, you can imagine that everything we record is there.. But creating a movie and, above all, work with a question of originality at the level of “originating” one's own time within a film, it is not obvious to us. And for me that is a constant obsession. When I arrived at Caurel, One of the things that I also quickly absorbed was that other perception that they have of a time that can occur in parallel., That's why all that belief in past universes, even of past spirits that may be present in certain spaces. That conception of a time that occurs in parallel seemed very cinematic to me.. Besides, We also spent a lot of time with the director of photography, Lara Villanova, observing the transformation of the landscape, of people and how they temporally related to everything. That made us begin to imagine a proper time for the film that draws a lot from them and that restful time where life seems to be lived in every second.. We wanted this to be present and, at the same time, we wanted that possibility of parallel times, hence the disappearance of Alba, the circularity of the film. That was always there from the beginning.
Your film takes place in an intermediate field between documentary and fiction. I don't know if without both at the same time (laughter)
(laughter) Yeah, could be. Now many people put this hybrid label on, from that place in between. Personally, I really like moving in that area because they are very creative spaces., very stimulating. Sometimes I don't feel that big of a difference between those two labels and, in this case, For me it was much more important to transcend them to tell a story. And that story that was constructed in the most authentic way possible to convey what it wanted to convey to the viewer.. What is documentary or fiction, each one will be able to detect, feel the no, or speculate about it. Oh well, I really like to explore that space in between..
Apart from the magical, Another element that appears in the film is the separation between men and women. The home, on the one hand, the hunt for the other. Why were you interested in addressing it??
That's another element that I like., how to think about spaces linked to the characters that inhabit them and give them their character and almost their soul. And there I very much felt the space of the home as a very feminine space.. I wanted to put special emphasis on the fact that those women who are in those more intimate or interior spaces of homes are less visible in cinematographic or audiovisual terms., among other things, because they are passive beings or entities and, from the action or the most exciting thing that is always looked for in a movie, sometimes they are not so suggestive. In a very clear and intentional way, I wanted to put the accent there, see from that place, from that universe and that more feminine look where everything is articulated from another point of view.
One of the fundamental elements of the film is found in that connection between the real and the unreal that the voice-over provides.. I wanted to ask you how this driving element came about., If it was there from the genesis of the project or was it something that appeared as a later need?. I understand that your film does not respond to a previous script…
No, no, no. In fact, It is a very montage film.. We've been riding for like a year and something; not working constantly, but yes like periods. Same as filming. We spent almost a year going at different times to pick up different stations. All that temporality made us have a clear idea of the film, but we also wanted to record a lot of material to accumulate or have a quantity of footage that could later open many doors and many options for us.. At first, We began to edit the film from a much more documentary place and, little by little, We discovered that everything I wanted to talk about needed other types of elements and resources., even resources that were fictional. And that was what we were considering.. The voice-over of the film was almost the last element. In fact, It was one of the last things we incorporated and that made us change the entire structure quite a bit.. But we saw it very clearly. It's one of those things that, when you insert it, It's like the icing on the cake, that which gives complete meaning and polarizes and organizes, suddenly, all. With Alba's personalization of this story we felt that the film was gaining more strength and we launched.
How did you approach working with children?? If it is already difficult to work with children in a film, What did they subject themselves to in order to perform the interpretation?? Since there is no action anchored to an argument, how did you direct them?
In my case it was wonderful because the casting I did for the boys was very immediate., very instant. I discovered Alba almost the first day I arrived at school where I met her and, quickly, we had a lot of connection. It was very easy to work with her because she almost imposed her own rhythms and interests on me.. It was a very documentary work because, giving you a couple of instructions, she did. I just follow her with the camera from behind. It was very nice, Although to get there it was also super-important to create strong relationships and bonds with these people.. Before rolling, I was going to this community for about two years., trying to be part of it. In the end, I think that trust that they had with me, especially the children, It allowed them to do what they usually do and not let the presence of the camera and the film device stop them from being who they are..
One of the most risky things that turns out well in the film is when you play with fantastic elements. And I am referring to those mysterious lights that appear at the beginning of the film and that perhaps refer us to spirits.. I wanted to ask you what they represent or how this idea came about..
Yeah, The whole issue of “special effects” was something that we were clear about from the beginning of the film, although we knew it was a huge risk, which is not at all common in a project that, a priori, It is presented as a documentary. But it was also one of those things that I feel, and it is that, when we are riding, We are very careful so that everything is understood, that everything is as if in a very canonical and academic universe. Yo, even, I don't really know what these labels mean.. So, I wanted to take a risk and mix these elements so that the viewer can accept or reject them with complete freedom.. This was one of those things that I was clear about.: that there would be people who could take it out of the film and people who could make it understand the film in a greater way. In the end, This is what we were talking about before., It's about how to convey what you want as an author.. I prefer to use all those elements that can make my story communicable than not stay in a more cryptic universe..
And to finish, now that the film has had its run, tell us, What has been the public reaction??
The truth is that there have been quite a few, but, in general, everyone who stays in the room when we do the discussions is very connected to the film. Everyone feels that the film does not leave them indifferent, that has a personal journey that tells each one their own things, because it awakens a lot inside everyone. And for me that is the most gratifying thing.: what, suddenly, An older woman tells me that she has returned to her childhood or a teenage boy tells me that he has connected a lot with this most magical universe., that this is how he understands the world and that, however, In your day to day life you cannot find this. This range of reactions has surprised me and, at the same time, I loved it because that's when you see that you reach or touch the people who watch the film.
I don't know if I should dare to ask you what happens in the end with Alba. Or do you prefer to leave it as an unsolvable mystery? (laughter).
(laughter) Of course, It's the total mystery. I usually say that Alba is also asking us that last question, which is the same one we started with: how we perceive the world, How can she talk to Samuel? [another of the children who appear in the film] from a place we don't know and tells him that it is there, what if he listens to her. For me that is the key to the film because it represents how I would like the viewer to relate to it.: from that place where you don't know where you've been, although, for a moment, Maybe you have visited those mountains, You have met these people and you carry them forever within you. I'm going to leave it there, we don't know where Alba is. (laughter) GERARDO LEON
