After profitable the 24th version of the Malaga Competition, ‘Ama’, the primary function by Catalan director Júlia de Paz, hits industrial theaters this July 16. Winner of the Silver Spike for finest actress and a Fierce Critics Award, the deconstructed portrait of motherhood has captivated critics and audiences. “The movie additionally comes from the necessity to symbolize a extra actual, extra human and concrete mother“, declares the filmmaker, who seeks to present a unique idea about what it means to be a mother or father.
‘Ama’ tells the story of Pepa (Tamara Casellas), a girl in her thirties, from Seville, who lives in Alicante. After a tricky argument along with her pal Ade (Ana Turpin), with whom she shares a flat, due to her nighttime excesses and irresponsibility, she throws Pepa and additionally her daughter, Leila (Leire Marín), from her home, solely six years. Alone and with a really precarious job, as a result of Pepa makes a residing giving flyers to a nightclub the place she works, the girl and the little woman find yourself seeing one another on the road. A chronicle of the bond between a mother and her daughter through which idealizations collapse.
The movie is the difference of a brief movie that was the final-year undertaking of its director. “Really, it was not one thing we had in thoughts. It is true that, once we had been writing the quick, we realized that the topic was so advanced, that the format was falling quick, definitely worth the redundancy. We had to deal with some features and discriminate others, as a result of if not, we’d have been a superficial and summary story “, De Paz explains in an interview for eCartelera through the promotion of the movie in Madrid.
“The thought for the function happened after presenting the quick on the Ibiza Movie Competition. One of many awards was that the manufacturing firm La Dalia Movies chosen one of many titles to flip it right into a full-length movie and selected our undertaking, “provides the director, who wrote the script along with Nuria Dunjó.”It was the chance we needed to delve into the theme and the character. It was an actual reward, “he provides.
“In fiction, the portraits of moms have been constituted of a male perspective”
The portrait that ‘Ama’ makes about motherhood differs loads from what is conventionally seen in Spanish fiction, each with industrial productions and in creator or artwork and essay titles. “I believe that many of the moms who’ve been represented in fiction, up to now, have been from a male perspective. It is totally different when the method is feminine,” says De Paz, highlighting that “the cinema is a method of illustration of society and, due to this fact, of the system”.
“The motherhood that the system has constructed is not actual, it is idealized. Moms are demanded canons inconceivable to obtain, the well-known advantage of motherhood. With ‘Ama’, we search to deconstruct it, “he provides.” The moms proven in fiction are moms of pure braveness. Exactly, in what Júlia seeks to break [de Paz], with that idealization. As an viewers, we’re not used to exhibiting such a feminine character, bare, with tattoos, with pink hair, groundbreaking, who talks like he talks, who strikes that method, who goes to discos and events and is additionally a mother “, shares Tamara Casellas.
“Society thinks that the mother ought to at all times be the one who cares. Pepa breaks that idealization. Moms there are tens of millions. We’re used to seeing, particularly within the cinema, how males make errors. Dad and mom make errors, and by rectifying them, they win public approval. We don’t often see it from the feminine perspective. We do not understand how to tolerate a mother making errors. When ladies are afraid of many issues. A mother is an individual, along with her strengths and weaknesses“, argues the main actress.”What is required of a mother is by no means the identical as what is required of a father and that is, essentially, what the movie talks about. There is no pure and supreme mother, however actual, human moms, “he continues.
‘Ama’ follows the spirit of European social cinema, recalling titles equivalent to ‘Rosetta’ or ‘The boy’ by the Dardenne brothers or ‘The snows of Kilimanjaro’ or ‘Gloria Mundi’ by Robert Guédiguian. Concerning the absence of a extra intensive manufacturing of function movies with social and creator content material within the Spanish trade, De Paz considers that, primarily, it is due to the truth that “it is not industrial.”
“It was important to method the movie from the social and financial actuality”
“Now, above all, within the state of affairs through which the trade is, in addition to the financial disaster that has accompanied us for thus a few years, the general public goes to the cinema as a type of escape. Go see a social drama, lots of them powerfulMaybe not as a lot as a lightweight comedy with which to disconnect and have a superb time. Nevertheless, it is a really difficult topic to deal with“, particulars De Paz.
“It’ll even be as a result of they do not need to present, they’re not within the producers. They’ve requested me if life is so arduous, if there are conditions like Pepa’s. You simply want to get out of our bubbles and see what surrounds us to notice that it is. There are very arduous conditions, denying them is residing with out being conscious of actuality. De Paz has created this social grievance, but it surely is not the one one, “explains Casellas.
And it is there, Throughout the social issue, the place enters the precarious actuality that many ladies who’re single moms reside. “How you reside, what assets you may have and what help you may have are crucial when it comes to understanding a relationship between a mother and a daughter. It was important to method it from the social class and work state of affairs that Pepa lives,” argues De Paz.
“A lady who is a mother and has monetary assets is not the identical as a girl who does not have them, when the latter might face lengthy working hours so as to make ends meet. This is the place the idea of sophistication is available in, “he continues.” What we promote from Spain is that it is an idyllic place. In reality, there is a criticism of tourism. We give one of the best to vacationers and we do not maintain our personal citizenship. There are various jobs associated to tourism that is pure exploitation“provides Casellas.
About filming, De Paz reveals that the manufacturing of ‘Ama’ was a kind of affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. “We had to cease the recordings. We had simply shot half of the undertaking. We thought the break was going to be two weeks and it was greater than two months. It was a second of nice uncertainty, we got here to doubt if we had been going to have the opportunity to resume it. Then again, it allowed us to assessment the filmed materials. Because it was not a undertaking shot chronologically, we had been in a position to rethink numerous features of the script, we eradicated scenes, we added others. Ultimately, it was a constructive expertise, “reveals the filmmaker.
The filming of ‘Ama’
A lot of the scenes which have captivated the critics of ‘Ama’ are these through which the protagonist interacts along with her daughter, performed by Leire Marín, sequences that present “all of the commerce work” that passed off after the manufacturing. “It was very handcrafted work, between Júlia [de Paz], the woman’s coach, Carlos Villafaina. We began 4 or 5 months earlier than capturing. We went to Leire’s home [Marín] to spend time along with her, to get to know her and to achieve confidence in us. It was essential to know from his favourite meals to his favourite toy. There was a whole lot of play, but additionally respect, as a result of it was essential for him to know that on the set, work is finished, “says Casellas.
“At an interpretive stage, we work the sequences along with her like a recreation. Then, De Paz takes me to me on an emotional stage, since I used to be the one who carried the burden of the sequence. Additionally, the shock think about kids is paramount, as a result of they can’t repeat a take as we grownup actors do. We play with spontaneity, freshness, the right here and now “, she continues, additionally highlighting that, for her, Pepa’s position has been “a personality hottie.”
“Leire has a whole lot of empathy and emotional intelligence, she was spectacular. With kids you can’t theorize or clarify a script, all the things had to be a recreation. On this, the determine of her personal mother, Lara, was crucial, and she helped us loads to discover the emotional stage we had been in search of for Leila, her character, “says De Paz.”Always, we requested Leire the place she needed to set the boundaries; if we had to cease, we did. The trail was joint, as equals, “he continues to clarify.
On the state of affairs of Spanish audiovisual tradition within the quick and medium time period, De Paz reveals that the issue is “very advanced.” “There are various components. Platforms have totally entered the scene. On the one hand, they’ve helped to produce extra. Nevertheless, what varieties of works do they produce? There is a whole lot of materials to produce, however budgets are nonetheless missing. Nor ought to we overlook that we’re experiencing a interval of financial disaster “, warns the director.
Directed by Júlia de Paz and written by Nuria Dunjó and De Paz, ‘Ama’ stars Tamara Casellas, Leire Marín, Estefanía de los Santos, Ana Turpin, Manuel de Blas, Pablo Gómez-Pando and Carmen Ibeas. A La Dalia Movies manufacturing. Obtainable in cinemas from Friday July 16, by the hand of Filmax.
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