Screenwriter, director and former Minister of Culture Rodriguez Zapatero and Ángeles González-Sinde meet again in Alicante on Thursday for their first film, chance to sleep (2003)twenty years later and after the final premiere of his last film as a director, Restaurantadapted by, Gabriela Ybarra’s autobiographical novel About the consequences for his family of the abduction and murder of his grandfather, Javier de Ybarra, by ETA in the summer of 1977. The event in Alicante will start at 17:00 at the Alicante Bar Association ( ICALI), free admission pre-registration at this link: https://bityl.co/CSM0
It won Goya for Best New Director. chance to sleep. How do you see the movie twenty years from now?
It comes at a very good time for me because it comes within the week that I premiered. Restaurant and it’s not normal for you to premiere your last movie and at the same time show your first one, and I think I’ll love seeing it tomorrow and being able to talk to the colloquium attendees. It’s very interesting to be able to talk to lawyers about a legal issue that has turned into fiction, and since I love movies and TV shows about lawyers, I’m sure I’ll be back with a suitcase full of ideas.
Haven’t you seen him since then?
No, and I think almost no filmmaker rewatches their movies because you only see the flaws and think you could have done better, but you didn’t. But since so much time has passed, I think I’ll watch it with great love, because now I also think it’s a very ambitious first political, social movie that follows filmmakers I admire, like Costa-Gavras or Sidney Lumet. A cinema that I loved and still love. I still identify a lot with the movie.
Adriana Ozores also starred. Restaurant.
Of course there was my favorite actress, Adriana Ozores, and we worked together on a play she directed and I wrote, and there was something else in Canal Sur years ago. It was the beginning of a very good relationship.
What prompted you to take this novel by Gabriela Ybarra to the movies?
He talks about many topics that I love and that interest me. Although there is a lot of conversation with family and people close to us, it is often difficult to communicate; also about politics, how it affects families, intimacy, how it is there even if we want to stay out of it, or how memory is passed on to different generations. And all this is spoken very delicately, with tenderness and restraint, without making melodramas. I really liked the novel and the author thought it was good to collaborate on the script, because for me it was important to have his support to do it well and respectfully.
Inside Restaurant, Are we talking about the trace of the murder, not the murder itself?
This much. Most cops or kidnappings are cut from the movie. We see the same as the family goes through. We’re in 1977 in a family of four brothers at home, and how do they see the failure of negotiations, the difficulty of getting news… and then we change it to 2011 with the same character (Ginés García). Mellán) is a grown man with one of the brothers, an older daughter (Susana Abautia). As a result of the mother’s illness, the girl begins to perceive that there are many blockages in that family, especially with her father, who carries a shield she has to break in order to be closer to her in difficult times like these. We go back and forth in time and we understand why that father was like this, why he had to keep quiet about what happened to him, because it was another time in Spain and he couldn’t understand what had happened to him. , because being the family of an ETA Victim was putting others at risk.
They started watching more movies about ETA terrorism. Is it important to heal wounds?
Yes, it is very important that we live in a safe environment and that this threat is no longer present. Before it was impossible to make today’s movies or TV shows because you risked your life, no one wanted to invest in them because they were risky. Instead, the atmosphere is completely different now, the film is received with great emotion, people applaud, get excited and identify with the problem whether they live in the Basque Country or not. This can be done in a welcoming atmosphere as it is now, ten years have passed since ETA ended and this puts us in a more calm and serene position to listen to versions from around the world. People find it comforting and you leave very peacefully because it is also bright, part of a problem and eventually finds a nice solution. It is a family that rebuilds and finds itself.
You don’t splurge as a director, why?
I also write novels because I work hard as a screenwriter, and because it’s almost a privilege to shoot movies today. Putting together a movie, financing it, etc. So hard. I am happy with my work as a screenwriter, but I hope to spend less time making films in the future.
I don’t know if it’s a good time to hit theaters.
It’s a very bad time because the box office hasn’t recovered from the pandemic and the movies run for a week or two. There aren’t many options and it’s the same for all movies. Whether it gets better will depend on all of us, on whether we regain the habit and realize that cinema is something that is seen on the big screen and with people in a room, as in the theatre. light.
It gave its name to the Sinde Law against piracy ten years ago. Have you ever thought that we’re going to pay platforms to consume TV shows and movies anymore?
Of course I dreamed it, it was very obvious, so it seemed to me that there should be some kind of cohabitation rule for everything. Only the technological ones cannot make a profit, and ultimately the technological ones are the same as those that produce and distribute the current cinema. What’s happening is that at this time Europe has weakened and the money we’re paying is the big North American platforms and we Europeans have shrunk to a Lilliputian size.
The Audiovisual Law, which provides assistance to movies and TV series on major platforms, has caused protests from independent producers. Do you understand your complaint?
Yes, of course I understand him, because his concern is the concern of all European producers. Platforms are great for consumers and audiences, but there should be diversity and big ones. super weapon and those who talk about other ways of seeing reality, for example Diner, Alcarras anyone five wolves, he said that they are the work of manufacturers who work in a different way and it is important to have their place. Otherwise, European audiovisual will be decided in Hollywood offices and it will be poor and impoverishing.
What do you think of the Ciudad de la Luz studios saved for audiovisuals?
This is great news, because the opportunity our country offers for foreign shoots and the money they bring to Spain is also huge. Guy Ritchie’s movie was shot in Alicante a few months ago, and what he left there is very important.
In 2010 the first deal to build the Arcadi Blasco Museum was in Mutxamel and it hasn’t been done yet. What do you think?
I was at my birth and it’s a very good project, it would be great if it could be taken up again. All the works of this generation of artists must be saved and re-evaluated. It’s not just memory, it’s part of who we are, and this work can be enjoyed by future generations who don’t know it.
Something in the pipeline?
I am writing. I published a novel (after whom) I have a house in Benidorm, Altea and I have now signed a contract to turn it into a movie and I hope I can go to Alicante soon, that would be great because I would shoot at home. All the action takes place between L’Alfàs del Pi, L’Albir, Polop, all that space, although it’s not said in the book. I would love to shoot there soon, and now I’m working on the script.