Paula Ortiz His latest movie is released this Friday ‘Teresa‘, He approaches the figure of Teresa of Christ in a very specific way. Players Blanca Portillo and Asier EtxeandiaThe production of Aragonese, who wrote the script together with Juan Mayorga and Javier García Arredondo, is a candidate to be one of the exciting films of the season.
-Not Teresa and St. Theresa… Why?
-Actually. For several reasons, first, we are committed to discovering women before anyone categorizes them or bestows upon them the title of saints. Secondly, both Juan Mayorga and I, and almost everyone who made this movie, do not subscribe to the Catholic faith, although we have an absolute passion for the character of Teresa. It is a film that tells the story of a woman who is faced with a series of decisions at a very special moment in her life and tests her conscience as she searches for meaning and existential questions running through her own experience. Something that defines her experience as a woman above all else.
-As he said on other occasions, his first encounter with Teresa was already a seizure.
-Today I remembered that at the theater course with Jesús Arbués in Albarracín, Rosendo Tello made me read it in the dark so that I could learn to experience the power of the poetic word. I did this through Santa Teresa and it was very traumatic. A woman who surprises me very much. Flights of Castilian mysticism are universes little explored by cinema because they are anti-cinematic because they are so far removed from the here and now. But sensually, they discover a kind of knowledge of the inner and outer experience of what it is to be human that resonates with me so much and challenges me so much. A woman who has challenged me as a poet throughout my life and accompanied me a lot.
-Teresa is a character who claims to remain silent, but I don’t know if there is a more controversial character throughout history, even today.
-True, it is always controversial. It is quite intriguing that she was a woman who was nearly burnt to death when she died and who was elevated to the altar at the age of ten for the socioeconomic interests of the empire. She died a rock star, a controversial woman who went from one extreme to the other, from heretic, destructive reformer in a schism in the church, to a symbol of the Catholic faith, a saint. And so it has been for 500 years; It progressed from being a symbol of national Catholicism, with Franco sleeping with his bad arm, to the vindication of Sender as an anarchist, to the vindication of her final readings as feminist. And Teresa is everything and at the same time none of these, because she was the catharsis, the crystallization, of the tension of her time. Its expression is so powerful, its words so subtle and contradictory, that it can be read and illuminate the sensibilities and agendas of all times. However, as Juan Mayorga said, what he will tell us is more important than what we want to say about him. He is still an amazing person that everyone hears from him. How many characters in our culture can we say such a thing to?
-Is silence revolutionary?
-It seems to me to be one of Teresa’s most valuable and precious ideas. It shook the system, destabilizing from silence the system of power of both the Court and the Church, and the most violent form of control of the Church throughout History, such as the Inquisition. This drove them crazy, they saw it as a danger that she would go to a house with 12 sisters and decide to live under a new norm with two basic questions: to find a space to be free from prison and to find a place where they could pray and think quietly. without intermediaries, without priests. And with a new rule where everyone is equal. It is extremely destructive, but the grace of doing it from silence is unparalleled. It seems to me to be a very revolutionary idea that 12 women in a house in Ávila would tremble at the danger of silent reflection because they could not control their thoughts.
-And all of this stems from absolute doubt.
-Doubt is Teresa’s driving force because she is a woman who doubts all the time. The movie begins and ends like this: Don’t you ever doubt, Teresa? He doubts everything. She is a woman of faith whose driving force is doubt, self-doubt, constant self-questioning and questioning of the world. What really moves us forward and investigates is doubt, and doubt is the greatest tool against any dogmatism, any form of totalitarianism or fascism. It is not possible for a doubter to be a totalitarian.
“As Juan Mayorga said, what he has to say to us is more important than what we want to say about him.”
-How do you create cinema from this silence?
-A dry film, basically silence but also words. She is a very contradictory woman, and although she made a revolution out of silence, she never stopped speaking and writing. But it is true that his searches are purely sensual, and thoughts in silence are translated in the most sensual way possible. I spent a week confined to one of the monasteries he founded in Toro (Zamora). It was very enlightening to see how they lived and what this community was like. They were incredibly respectful and women of very high intellectual debate, with a very strong capacity for discussion, thought and understanding. When they make these reflections, there is something motionless, silent, and that is uncinematic. I translated this as a kind of combination of meditation methods in many religions because you realize that all religions use the same tools of connecting to the world, silence, breathing, vibration, body position, in the search for that state that leads to another place. and sky. And there I gave some breaths to the nuns in the movie, which were not correct, but could have been.
-The film revolves around the amazing performances of Blanca Portillo and Asier Etxeandia. Was it clear from the beginning that they would be the leading roles?
-The script was written for them. Eight years ago, when Juan Mayorga’s play was still around the corner, we did a reading of a very rudimentary script, and it was very enlightening to hear the characters’ voices. We had our doubts about whether 16th century Spanish would be intelligible and it was so brutal, we all left in shock. And since then everything has been done for them. They are actors with superior acting abilities who can very strongly control their existence, their bodies, their voices, their words, their understanding, their texts, their silence… They are two very monster actors. Moreover, they have a very deep relationship of friendship and love dating back many years, and there is a very strong erotic drive (deep down) between them that keeps them under constant creative electricity. They are so strong together, they love and fear each other immensely. This acting is a privilege.
“It seems to me to be a very revolutionary idea that 12 women in a house in Ávila would have the danger of thinking silently, making them tremble because they cannot control their thoughts.”
-Eight years ago? Yes, this project took a long time.
-A film that is difficult to understand and finance, it is not a love story or a thriller, but a story with existential doubt as its backbone, a dialectical struggle, a struggle with yourself, with yourself. Your best flights and your worst nightmares, with questions that drag you into the abyss. It’s a very human thing but it’s not fashionable, that’s why it cost so much but it was worth it. Now we see this by looking at how people receive it.
-Shall we talk about the awards?
-It’s a very difficult year with big productions, names and big names coming out, so I don’t know what will happen.