Manager Edward Casanova (Madrid, 1991) He visits Sitges dressed from head to toe in pink, the same color that made up the color palette of his last film, ‘piety’fantastic oozing enchanting melodrama capable of winning an award at an ‘auteur’ festival like Karlovy Vary or one of the unbiased genders Austin’s Fantastic Fest. Who was Fidel one day in the series ‘Aída’, one of the most original and courageous voices of our cinema today, as illustrated by ‘La piedad’ here portrays the suffocating bond of addiction between a mother (Ángela Molina) and her. His son (Manel Lunell), diagnosed with cancer, reveals a parallel family drama set in Kim Jong-il’s North Korea. Mother-child relationships, morbid addiction and fear of freedomIn the official episode of Sitges – with the possibility of setting the bell – competing, on the verge of skidding, in a wild, dazzling and unique film.
What does it mean to you to win at two opposite festivals in principle, Karlovy Vary and Austin? And now here in Sitges.
A curious tour, yes. Festival programmers have a little bit of experience what happens to the audience when they watch the movie, and usually what happens to people when they see me: They don’t know where to put us because of the unclassifiable. But it’s positive to have worked in so many different places with a great melodrama. It has some poetic justice. I like.
‘La piedad’ focuses on an unhealthy mother-child relationship, but also on the toxicity of a particular addiction between people.
The movie is about seeking freedom and realizing that it doesn’t exist. For example, when you are in a relationship, you want to break up, but you can’t. It’s happened to all of us: you’re with someone, you want to break up with them, you fight, you get it, and… you feel awful. Free but deadly. And that’s what I’m talking about in ‘La piedad’: I don’t know if it has happened to anyone, but it has happened to me. I made the movie so that I hope it changes too.
How much autobiographical is in the movie? Everything feels so personal that it gives the impression that you are the alter ego of the main character, perhaps wrong.
There’s a lot of me in the movie. Written and thought through from a very personal point of view, and everything I direct, good or bad, pollutes a part of me. Everything in my relationships, in my fears, in my pain, is inspired by me. Although there is a lot of me in the character of the son as well as in the character of the mother.
“I can’t imagine a life without a movie theater. It has saved my life several times”
Is pain, suffering, one of your creative engines?
A bit of a ‘save me’ question, but yes. I create from pain. Many things torture me. And I like to suggest an artistic creation from things I can’t figure out. This helps me solve them. I can’t imagine a life without cinema. It has saved my life several times.
Why is this story parallel to the North Korean family and the figure of dictator Kim Jong-il?
One of my biggest fears is death. And in a way, motherhood is about that fear. He has a child for many reasons, but also to stay on earth forever, even when you are no longer there. This is the survival instinct. The same thing happens with political leaders and dictatorships: the leader who dies remains the father of the nation and somehow lasts forever. It also has to do with my job as a director.
Do you want to drive?
Unconsciously, I think I’m making movies so that when I die, I’m still here somehow. It is selfishness and egocentrism, but it is something deeply human.
Afraid that your comparison between some mother-child relationships and the North Korean dictatorship might be disturbing?
Of course this worries me because I am a feminist person. I dare say radical feminist. In this sense, I am not talking about mothers or motherhood in general, I am talking about a woman who is a mother. I don’t think all women who decide to become mothers are like this. In fact, there are other types of women and mothers in the movie that are very different from the one represented by the character Ángela Molina. Nor did I mean to imply that women have the obligation, right and duty to be mothers. A woman can do whatever comes out of her pussy.
Where does this aesthetic admiration for the North Korean regime come from?
I studied cinema in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. I became very interested in the leader figure. The idea of leadership bothers me a lot. I am also very interested in human complexity and dictators are very complex people. I’m particularly interested in Kim Jong-il, as his dictatorship is terrible and weird. He was obsessed with cinema and built his country, his capital, like a giant movie set. And suddenly I’m doing a little bit of the same. The difference is, of course I don’t kill anyone.
“I think fags can make very good horror movies because we know very well what horror is.”
Genre cinema has generally been shot by men, but lately there has been an increasingly enriching view of women. How necessary do you think the ‘queer’ perspective is in genre cinema, in horror cinema?
Necessary. More. I think they have incredible genre directors like Julia Ducournau or Carlota Pereda. But it is clear that we need more women making genre films. Horror movies, the great masters we are used to are not only women but also LGTBI people. And for me, as an LGTBI person, I want to make a film that deals not only with ‘queer’ issues but also with fear, because my struggle as a human being is inherent in every story it tells. I think fags can make very good horror movies because we know very well what horror is.
His cinema is very personal, but I want to ask if he has a mirror in which he looks at himself or if he looks at himself.
While writing and directing I try not to look too much at others because it’s already done and I want to give the audience something new. I love the humor of Todd Solondz, the darkness of Polanski, the punk vibe of John Waters. But they are not references for my work. My reference is real life, which is exactly what I hate. Life is both my reference and my fear. I guess it’s hard to believe my movies are based on reality and then paint everything pink. But that’s how it is.
Why are you obsessed with pink? It was the dominant color palette in his first feature film ‘Pieles’.
Everything in my cinema revolves around pink. It is a stamped color that has the most problems. And I always tend to shake hands with the one who has the most problems. It’s like shaking hands with myself.
“The most democratic people will always choose to watch my movies, but if someone from VOX is interested in watching them, I’ll applaud them”
I have to ask him about the controversy that arose on the networks after his statements in an interview where he said he didn’t want VOX voters to see ‘La piedad’. Regret?
Definitely. I cannot and should not regret what I have said or thought. The most democratic people will always choose to watch my movies, but if someone from VOX is interested in seeing it, I’ll applaud them.
Does it upset you that it’s finally becoming a trend on Twitter, like what happened to Samantha Hudson when she started some of her slurs from the far right?
Look, one day the head of the Spanish far-right party said in an interview that he does not believe in the collectives, but that there are homosexuals in his party. In short, fags can be anywhere. Now we need to have a certain intuition and know where to be safer. But we have the right to be anywhere.