Un lugar común, which premieres today in the talent section of the D'A Festival Cinema Barcelona, brings together an actress with more than a decade of experience, Eva Lorach, with a director who made his debut in feature films after studying at ESCAC and making several episodes From the final series This Is Not Sweden by Celia Giraldo. They are united by a character created by the director and created by the actress, Pilar, a woman who has never questioned her role in life as a mother, wife and worker. Until he is fired from his job and must delve into his identity to overcome an impending personal crisis.
You could talk about strengthening character, but that wouldn't be accurate. For Lorach, it's not so much about empowerment as it is “looking inward and asking yourself 'Who am I?', and beginning to ask existential questions that our mothers might never have asked themselves.” The actress feels closer to the character of Clara, the daughter: “I was not a mother, so this connects me more with the daughter than with Pilar, but it is true that our mothers did not have questions like ‘Who am I?’, ‘Why am I here’, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’” “The events of the film revolve around this idea, which is to ask yourself questions that you have never thought about before.”
Geraldo adds that the heroine's driving force is “trying to avoid what bothers her, everything that happens to her. And I imagine Pilar in a very good situation: this is my life, this is who I am. And from one time, when everything becomes okay.” Deconstructed, this cathartic journey traverses great discomfort and a strange shame.” The Un lugar común project “featured in ESCAC’s Ópera Prima, which came out when I was about to finish my studies,” the director explains. “The tone was comedic, but different from what I was used to seeing In other Spanish films. “I thought a lot about who would be the heroine, because it had to be a very restrained comedy, with a lot of balance.”
Will you be thinking about Eva Lorach soon? “I really loved her work and I saw her doing very dramatic roles, but also when she won the Fayrouz Award, and she gave a very funny speech there. For me it was Kristen Wiig in Spanish and I thought, ‘This is what I want.’ I want, an actress who understands the codes of drama well, but who can explode.” In the comedy it takes the character to more dangerous places.
“Very unusual accent”
Was it easy to convince her to play Pilar? “It was so easy, plus he read the tarot cards to me!” Lorach recalls about his first meeting with Geraldo. “She came to Madrid with a script that made me fall in love, and her too. The script had a very unusual tone in Spanish cinema and told me about the references that interested me.”
Related news
The director was clear that she wanted to make an uncomfortable comedy. One of his references was German Maren Ade, Toni Erdmann's director, but “I also wanted to work close to Miranda July, picking up elements of the character's everyday life and bringing them into a more dream-like, hyper-subjective world.” Giraldo also cites Sebastian Lelio's Gloria, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, and Noah Baumbach's cinema as possible influences that hover over the images in his film. The idea is to create discomfort to draw the viewer into the story and empathize with the character.
Geraldo came to Lorach with a highly planned script, in a clear film style, and then made room for improvisation or magic of every moment in the execution. “The fact that it is a small film forces you to have a very ready production that will be very easy to shoot later, although allowing for some flexibility,” Jurasz concludes.
“Professional web ninja. Certified gamer. Avid zombie geek. Hipster-friendly baconaholic.”
