Elena López Riera, director of El Agua, and Carla Simón, director of Alcarràs, met on Monday afternoon at Lys cinemas in Valencia to discuss cinema in general and their own cinema in particular. Simón and López Riera spoke with journalist Pepa Blanes in front of an audience that filled the stalls, reflecting on how they began as filmmakers and exploring shared threads in their bodies of work, rooted in their places of origin and the roles of women in their films.
Regarding their entry into filmmaking, López Riera highlighted her love for her hometown Orihuela, where her first feature unfolds and where she has lived for years. She described how hard it can be to find audiences for premieres in such a place. She recalled watching Arctic Circle Lovers and being astonished that such stories could be made, which sparked her curiosity about the profession. Simón, meanwhile, shared that she grew up in the countryside and did not watch many movies in her youth. She recalled watching Unknown Code in high school and realizing, long before she understood it fully, that a single story can carry many meanings through cinema.
When discussing Alcarràs, Simón explained that the film comes from her mother’s town and that she did not grow up in a city. Although rural life has often been depicted from the outside, she was able to portray Alcarràs from within because she spent a lot of time at her uncle’s house, planting peaches and observing both the good and the bad. She spoke about where to position the cameras and how to tell the story through her own experiences.
love and hate
On the tension between loving and hating one’s origins and the place one returns to work, López Riera admitted that looking at things from inside is tricky. She warned that waiting for the people she films to confer legitimacy is risky. The important point is to address the complexity of what is being filmed. She noted that one can feel rooted in a city yet emotionally distant, a dilemma that excites her in Alcarràs as she explores domestic exile.
The interviewer asked the Valencian director about the women who speak on camera, how they feel about speaking up, and how Elena wants to empower them to resist traditional gender roles. López Riera cautioned that escaping gender constraints may not be straightforward. Most people did not want to participate because they felt they could not speak up.
Simón emphasized that revitalizing Alcarràs through the film involved showing rural women as full, capable beings who support their families and endure emotional strain while offering hope to the next generation. She noted that her cousin is part of Alcarràs’s feminist community and that the conversation around the film has evolved over time.
López Riera added that sometimes it feels up to women to provide answers, and that sharing doubts is itself a strength. She stressed the importance of not presenting everything as settled or final.
“Daughter is like her mother”
Blanes brought up how Water addresses the idea that a daughter inherits a mother’s reputation. Through the women like Luna and Barbara Lennie, these characters become heroes in their own right. The director acknowledged the inherited stigmas that shape how society is organized. The women in the films are sometimes harsh, sometimes not, and they possess complexity that becomes the core of a character.
Both El Agua and Alcarràs drew praise and received multiple Goya nominations this year, with several leading roles cast with non-professional actors who bring lived experience with history and place to the screen.
Blanes highlighted that the casting process ran in parallel for both films. In Alcarràs, Simón sought to honor the Catalan spoken in the region and avoided forcing the language on actors who did not naturally speak it. She stressed the idea that the farmer remains a farmer and that the film captures authentic hands at work, with finding the right women being especially challenging.
During casting, many women paused to apologize for being there; afterward, those same women gained confidence and stepped into their roles. They learned to empower themselves, to leave their children in the care of others, and to feel entitled to participate in making and promoting the film, even if it meant stepping outside their comfort zone.
Many actresses arrived with personal stories to tell, and the script absorbed these experiences. López Riera spoke of the vast, unspoken abuse some women carried and how intimate those conversations were, prompting researchers to ask fewer questions and simply ask what these women wanted. The process was long, especially given the pandemic, but the stories enriched the project deeply.
Change in footage
Simón described Alcarràs’s cast as a real connection, noting that she rented a house, spent three months meeting the community, rehearsing, and improvising before filming. This approach, she said, creates intimate moments captured on camera as if the production were a family gathering.
She was asked about the dynamics on set as teams became led by young women like them. López Riera recalled that in the first week of filming some people doubted her capability, but she now sees this doubt as part of the process. The shift toward women directing has brought more courage to admit uncertainty and to say I do not know, which she views as a strength rather than a weakness.
Both El Agua and Alcarràs feature collaborations with the same group of people across projects. López Riera observed that the film industry is not the same as it once was, and Simón echoed that sentiment with a sense of optimism for new voices and methods.
The discussion concluded with reflections on nominations and awards, and the anxiety and excitement they bring. López Riera admitted that discussing success can feel like sharing a highlight reel on social media, while Simón noted that the hardest part of the process is managing expectations at festivals and maintaining emotional resilience throughout the journey.