Elena Lopez Riera Since his first short film (Orihuela, 1982) has shaped his career as an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. Citypremiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2015; second, visceraAt the Locarno Festival (Switzerland), like the third, those who want, obtained, among others, the Pardino d’Oro. His first feature film thisstarted his journey in Cannes in April 2022 and has not stopped traveling since. Filmed in Orihuela, her story about women finding their way amid water myths earned her two Goya nominations (new director and revelation actress for Luna Pamies). She has fun thinking about telling new things with her own and always feminist perspective.
How did you decide to live in Switzerland?
This had to do with the Spanish crisis, which is why I am so burdened with the political situation. I left in the middle of a crisis in 2008, where there were no jobs, no scholarships, nothing, and I got a job at the University of Geneva to do my thesis and teach. It was the last place in the world I thought of going, but the opportunity came and that’s life.
You’ve always filmed in Orihuela and made your premieres outside of our borders. What does this mean for you?
These are the things that you dream of but don’t know if they will come true because it is so difficult. I am really happy. You keep trying and it finally comes. Beyond my own ego, it’s a thank you to my team, the people who support you, and the institutions that don’t always support you, but it’s a way of saying to them, “It’s your turn to support these movies so they can get shot”. known.”
Has being in Switzerland opened up more doors for you than if you worked here?
I do not know. I don’t think you have to go out to do things, and there are actually people who have never left Spain or where they live. There are examples in Alicante such as the Chema García Ibarra, which is always in Elche and is doing very well. Mine was quadratic, it was life. But I think that looking at where I come from from a different angle helps me more on a human and artistic level. If I hadn’t left here, I probably wouldn’t have gone back to my town to shoot. There is one thing that weighs on me, which is exile, distance, which is somehow useful on an artistic level.
“Leaving Orihuela helped me take a different look at where I came from”
You left Orihuela as you once said, but Orihuela did not leave you. Keep it up?
This much. If I had never left, I would still hate it and say I wanted to go (laughs) or the last thing I would want to do would be to film the orchard behind my house. But when you’re gone you miss everything and there’s something from it.
how do you see now thisMonths after its premiere in Cannes and I don’t know if it’s still in theaters?
It was still in theaters and there were very few copies anymore. We were in the seventh or eighth week, which is a really big achievement. Now I’m trying to get away from myself. This is really nice this, but I want to switch to something else (laughs), or you’ll go a little crazy. It’s just that I had already been working on that project for five years when it came out. For humans this is something new and for you it has already happened. I’m still very happy, now very happy with the Goyas, but now I want to move on to something else.
But do you see better than you finished, do you see the flaws…?
I have never seen him again, nor will I ever see him again…
Number?
No, no, what’s up, I’m having a really bad time. Now I only see the bad. I’m not the best person to sell my own business and so fortunately I have people accompanying me. Because if he looks like a dessert to me, I wonder why people would pay to see him. I’m not very well, I live very badly, I never saw the shorts again. I don’t live well what I do, really. Each of them has its own minor pathologies (laughs).
And what prompted you to make this movie?
It’s hard to know “what” moves you. I’ve always worked with similar things, my city and my place, and I think it’s a natural progression.
Is it a good time for peripheral cinema, which tells different stories from other places?
I hope so, it means other kinds of movies are starting to be made from other places, and it’s also important to have diversity in what’s being made and where they’re made from.
Your cinema is independent, non-commercial and has received good reviews, but it also reaches cinemas. Has something changed in the audience?
It depends on whom you ask, because if you compare it to the numbers before the pandemic, distributors want to shoot themselves. If people rarely went to the movies anyway, the pandemic was a terrible blow. But in this bleak panorama, I want to be optimistic and think there’s a kind of compromise, maybe people want to watch the same things that platforms offer them, or go to the movies. something different when you pay for your ticket and the truth is it went very well for us and I’m not complaining but overall the outlook is pretty bleak because people don’t go to the movies much.
But 20 years ago, your film was only seen in film libraries, film clubs, festivals…
Twenty years ago it wouldn’t have been done directly. Twenty years ago it was a short while, but thirty years ago I wouldn’t have had a cell phone to record things or even think I could make a movie. What you lose on the one hand, you gain on the other. So I am not pessimistic, we should embrace time in all its complexity. They did in the previous generation movies the wealthy, those from a well-to-do family or those who can go to film school; People from my profile or from other profiles wouldn’t have made movies 30-40 years ago.
You are a woman, there is a lot of feminism in your movie, which is a woman’s story.
When I’m filming, when I go to buy bread or when I’m teaching, I can’t see the world any other way. I believe you wouldn’t be in the world otherwise without a feminist perspective. Then there are the nuances, the various positions, and it’s important that the feminist struggle is diverse and complex, but you can’t see the world any other way. Feminism is a critical point of view on the system that all people, especially women, are victims of, and I try to look at everything from this perspective.
Many directors came across this year in cinema and Goyas. Do you believe it will continue in the future?
I hope that’s the idea. I hope they don’t fire us now that they let us in (laughs), but then we’ll have to see who wins the prizes. There are many women, but in the end, the awards continue to be received by them. There’s work being done, it’s great that they let us participate and it would be nice if they let us go all the way.
“I guess people forgot to go to the cinema to watch a movie, which is a different experience”
Are platforms necessary for your projects?
I distribute film as a platform and I defend cinemas, but no matter how much we whine, we have to accept how the system has changed. I’m a cinephile and the theater experience isn’t the same, but you don’t have to stop going to the movies just because you have a platform. But I think people forgot to go to the cinema to watch movies, which is a different experience.
What can you say about your new project that you are developing at the Residence of the Film Academy?
I haven’t made much progress as I haven’t progressed yet. And I don’t want to say much because I find me sinister, but this is about feminist psychics.
Will you return to Orihuela to shoot?
I do not know. I still have to think.
Will things change after your first feature film?
I hope so, because life is learning, not making the same movie all the time.
For example, can you imagine shooting in Hollywood in a few years?
Hopefully, of course. Here is my phone and they are calling me (laughs). Doors should not be closed to anything, they invite us to worlds we do not suspect.
And now you are there with possibilities in Goya…
I’m happy but winning seems impossible, at least for me. I have more hope with the girl (Luna Pamies) but being there is already a reward, which is a very difficult year.