A veteran filmmaker, Fernando Trueba faces no challenge he cannot meet. With forty-four years since his debut, the director steps into a new genre with his latest film Isla Perdida, starring Matt Dillon and Aida Folch. Trueba unveiled this new work this afternoon in the Kinépolis cinema.
-He ventures into the suspense genre as a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith. What do these figures inspire in him?
-They are part of my life. Her novels and his films have lingered for years and years. I first went to interview Patricia Highsmith when she lived in France, when she wasn’t well known in Spain yet. It was during that interview that her novels began to be published more broadly.
-Why did he decide to dive into suspense now?
-I have always loved it. There was a period when we had the option to adapt a Patricia Highsmith novel. I even wrote another script that’s still somewhere, but I never made it. It’s a genre that has always hovered over my life, circling around me.
-What was the most challenging aspect of making the film?
-It was a great joy to make the film. The hardest part was preserving the atmosphere of the story and the tonal shift it undergoes from start to finish. It evolves from light at the beginning to darkness at the end. This change happens not only in mood but in what the characters experience. The process required constant attention, crafting shot by shot, scene by scene.
-Take a journey through the different seasons. Why exclude spring?
-I always saw it as a summer, autumn, and winter tale. Spring wasn’t needed for the story.
-Being a suspense piece, the film emphasizes the summer’s color rather than winter’s darkness.
-The characters and the atmosphere are both important. The film invites the audience to notice the reality around them, then gradually transport them somewhere less real and more cinematic.
-What about the islands makes them recurring settings for thrillers?
-Islands have always attracted me. Since childhood, I’ve loved them. Two of my favorite novels were Verne’s The Mysterious Island and Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Islands appear beautiful and endlessly fascinating, and I always pictured this movie on an island.
-The characters revisit their past. Do you take that same journey?
-Unavoidably, the only thing we truly possess is the past. The present lasts only a fraction of a second. It cannot be grasped, and the future isn’t found anywhere. The past is the real possession we hold.
The film also touches on the attacks of the World Trade Center and evokes those old phones. It is set in a moment when mobile phones existed but were not as advanced as today. The aim was to situate the actions of the past in that era of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, and to acknowledge a universally recognizable moment. The World Trade Center image is unsettling and widely recognized; everyone remembers exactly where they were.
-Yet this is not a film of protest but of storytelling.
-There was a strong desire to make cinema itself the protagonist, to create pure cinema. Every film carries a thread of real events and of the characters’ experiences, and here we accompany a woman from start to finish, sharing her journey together with her story.
-Even without a protest, the film broaches contemporary themes like toxic love.
-That aspect is present, of course. It shows how we sometimes become prisoners of our desires and dreams, and how we can also be victims. It is a very real truth, always there, and we become more aware and reflective about it.
-Promotion is underway, but a week from now Volveréis opens, where he appears as an actor. How was that shift in role?
-It was wonderful. When Jonás suggested it, I thought he was joking and should find another actor. He insisted I take the part, and I didn’t want to derail the project, it carried a lot of responsibility, but his persistence won me over. Being directed by his own son felt magical, something you never expect to happen.
-Does this experience give him greater understanding of actors?
-I always empathize deeply with actors. I begin by empathizing with the characters when I write with them. I’ve often said I cannot tell stories about characters I do not care about. In this case, Alex is a character I care about and value. I want to spend that time with her and tell her story.