I'm living it all... It's all so mind-blowing new to me
that I have no idea.
I am calm because the film is done
and that was the most important thing, to get to the end.
Now it's all about enjoying.
I don't know what to expect, because I'm aware
that it's not a normal film
and I have no idea how it’s going to be received or anything.
Surprise.
The film came about ten years ago in India, and by chance,
because I found a book,
'The Sultana's Dream', in which the story is inspired.
And then and there I knew that I had a treasure in my hands,
but how to build a story...
At first we had no idea if it was going to be a feature film,
a short film, a documentary or a fiction film.
And little by little, over the years, the tree has been growing
in a direction in which I think is what we wanted,
but we didn't really know what the final picture was going to be like.
That's also why it took time, because I needed peace and quiet
to see how we were going to build this story.
The part of Ladyland was what we first decided on.
It's done with temporary tattooing
because I had done some workshops with women in India
using temporary tattooing,
and we had done some tests
on how to adapt body painting to paper. And it worked.
And also because it has such a great symbolic value,
it is such a deep-rooted tradition in India to have your body painted,
your whole body adorned the day before the wedding,
the woman alone, that we thought it was the best way.
So with the women artists of the mehndi we did a lot of workshops
with the book and with them we developed this part.
In the shadow theater part, the one that tells Rokeya's life,
I wanted something that was relatively fast,
that had the magic of transparencies,
that is, being able to do something with backlighting.
I love that because you stick your head in the multiplane
and you're already imagining another world.
We developed this part with the cut-outs
animated by María Manero and composed by Edu Elosegi.
And with that, to reconstruct a very popular form of entertainment
at the time when Begum Rokeya grew up.
And the last part, which is what ties everything together,
which is the story of this young woman from San Sebastian
who is unable to dream,
we did it inspired by the drawings or my travel notebooks
that are made with ink and watercolor,
which is 2D animation, the most elaborate,
the technically most difficult,
but at the same time the one that could most directly reflect
this pictorial aspect and the atmosphere.
We have made a commitment to telling the story
by the atmospheres of the paintings
in which the character seems to enter
rather than based on acting or action.
We have also worked on music with many musicians all over India
to reconstruct this kind of musical panorama
and range of music that is presented in the film.
This has been the responsibility of Gianmarco Serra,
who has also been co-writer
and partner in crime during all these years.
He conceived, from the beginning, that sound had to be recreated
in the same way that images are inspired by the travel notebook.
He too, over the years,
recorded all the documentary material in India,
in the places where they belonged.
And as we were writing the screenplay
and rewriting it or drawing it
things have happened.
For example, I'm a big fan of Mary Beard,
and I happened to meet her at the Capitoline Museums,
which are in the movie,
so why not incorporate her?
And, above all, after I attended a conference she gave
on “Women and Power” where she recounts
this episode of Telemachus and Penelope.
And then there was Paul Preciado, who gave some lectures
here at the San Telmo Museum about utopias
while we were writing the script,
and for me it was a great revelation,
and we decided to incorporate him into the project as well
because, in some way, it had to have these elements of reality,
credibility, personal experience,
which I think make everything a little more credible,
even though they seem to be isolated elements,
but, in the end, they are not, they all tell the same story.
They are women, Indian writers,
writers that I have read
and who have also been instrumental in understanding
the circumstances in which Begum Rokeya Hossain
was able to imagine this story.
They are characters that are inspired by real people,
because somehow you have to imagine their personalities
and if they are real, it's easier for me.
What we do know is that Begum Rokeya Hossain
came from a privileged family
and that her father had a large library.
And I also think that at that time,
we are talking about pre-independence India,
the influence and the amount of cultural movement
and things that were being talked about,
there was no globalisation, but a pre-globalisation.
So she was also very aware of other things
that were happening in the world.
Animation is something that you do alone,
but you also need to be with other people
who are doing the same thing,
because otherwise you end up losing and giving up.
It is essential that people are in a connection in order to be able
to carry the burden that we all place on ourselves.
And how do I see it? I see that right now there are a lot of things,
From Švankmajer,
to the Chileans of 'La casa lobo / The Wolf House',
to Anca Damian, to Florence Miailhe, to the Disney classics,
there is a wide range that has been very stimulating
and motivating at different levels.
Some because they are artistically incredible,
others because of the story, others because of the freedom,
above all because of the freedom.
Of course, that is something enviable and very stimulating,
the freedom of certain directors to establish
and do what they want, and to be coherent
and very consistent to the end. And that's totally enviable.
And I learn.
The need to dream as a transformative element.
In which utopias become something that we can live in.
Dreaming to be able to imagine, to be able to turn it into reality.
71SSIFF | Kafea - Pedágio
08:45
71SSIFF | Kafea - Beyond the Fog
13:02
71SSIFF | Kafea - Grace
21:08
71SSIFF | Kafea - El juicio
02:46
71SSIFF | Kafea - Les rayons gamma
22:18
71SSIFF | Kafea - The New Boy
18:51
71SSIFF | Kafea - Los delincuentes
24:55
71SSIFF | Kafea - Los impactados
16:26
71SSIFF | Kafea - We Are the Hollow Men
13:25
71SSIFF | Kafea - Bauryna salu
18:28
71SSIFF | Kafea - Contadores
15:35
71SSIFF | Kafea - Single Light
17:24
71SSIFF | Kafea - Alemania
19:30
71SSIFF | Kafea - Camping du lac
15:16
71SSIFF | Kafea - Short Story
26:58
71SSIFF | Kafea - Aunque es de noche
21:22