a country trapped in the cycle of violence. In Flix, the Colombian creator talks about the experience.
Before it gets lost in the jungle of Colombia and arrived at the Cannes film Festival with the film that made his name known to the cinema world, Jose Luis ΡουχÎλες worked for 15 years in advertising and directed short films, documentary video clip, while in 1995 he founded his own production company in which he trusted, and his first feature film, “Garcia”, 2010.
The Flix is talking about a movie that started more like a need to come up with an honest and fearless portrait of an entire country and insists that the cinema is by its nature “political”, when it’s sincere.
Diego Βιβάνκο, screenwriter of “Garcia” started his research five years ago, he gave me a scenario and we started to do interviews with girls who had returned from the war. We started to make a character who not only touched our hearts but made us to commit ourselves with the topic in an excessive way. When you look at the reality, to which we are usually indifferent, are born questions, pains, and this intense feeling that you want to say something that cause the debate. “Alias Maria” is a film that was born as fiction, through interviews with members of the resistance touched the fact, and returned again in fiction.
How hard it was to experience the journey of the heroine, with shooting on real locations, and deep down in the inhospitable colombian jungle?
Maria represents the set of girls that we met. It is a 13-year-old child. A woman in love. A woman – warrior. And keeps a secret: she is pregnant and this power makes her a heroine. To the beats of her heart and in her eyes we see the suffering of a 60-year-old war. The jungle is one of the key elements of the film: the mosquitos, the trails with the horses or canoes, the humidity is so uncomfortable for those of us who live in the city. All these items were allies for the visual part of the movie because we started as a team – γκεÏίλα, the actors and the crew had to come face to face with reality.
How did you choose the star?
We knew that we would not be able to find a 13-year-old professional actor, so we saw about 1200 kids, and we started narrowing, until it ended up in 20 girls. With them εκινήσαμε acting workshops and then we shot some scenes and fake interviews. There Karen started to stand out and we’ve become witnesses of his power, of the honesty of gaming, the way in which he listened to and conveyed what he heard. In the last scene of the film, the look of Karen is this expression, which expresses everything, but mainly the most difficult thing in the world: the future. In her eyes one can see the future.
“Alias Maria” is both a political and personal film. What’s your definition of a “political” movie?
When dealing with this issue have to be a politician. It’s a very honest movie. More than to expose the problems caused by the war, wants to show the trace that it leaves, told from the perspective of a girl. We wanted to show an intimate history without ideological or political preferences. This country has some time to talk, to express 50 years of war and the art is the cleanest way to do it. I think we need to tell our stories in order not to repeat the same mistakes. Seen from this perspective, I think the cinema is political by nature, in one way or another.
You dedicate the film to the θαÏÏαλÎÏ‚ women who are fighting to change the world. Do you believe that cinema can change the world?
I don’t think I can change the world, but I believe that it is an invitation to see the reflection of us, to dream, to reinvent ourselves.
Source
Jose Luis ΡουχÎλες: The director of “Alias Maria” dedicates to the courageous women of this world
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