The need for sexuality of a person with a functional disability is portrayed in a Spanish film

The Spanish filmmaker Fernando Franco, who established himself with The wound nine years ago precisely in San Sebastián, returns to the Basque competition to now compete with Spring consecration, a peculiar story of love or relationship above sex, which unites a cerebral palsy with a young student. EL UNIVERSO spoke exclusively with the filmmaker.

How was the documentation process for this unusual story?

It has been long, more than difficult. We resort to many sources: movies, books, journalistic material, in short. I myself attended a course on sexual assistance for the disabled in Barcelona. And I must admit that it was quite exciting to get involved in this project because it is a subject that I do not know. I have paid a lot of attention to it and I have been discovering a lot of things in the process. The incorporation of Telmo (the disabled) in the film is another step in that direction, since he contributed things from his own condition. That is to say, it has been a documentation in real time and in first person.

These are the benefits that Ecuador gives to people with recognized disabilities

How did you come to connect David’s story of functional diversity with that of young Laura and her search for a sexual identity?

I didn’t want to make a thesis or lecture-based film. I don’t like theme movies. Although the germ is present here, I try to make more of a representation of the character. For this reason, it seemed important to me to counteract the need for sexuality of a person who has a functional disability due to cerebral palsy, because somehow we have to overcome these a priori prejudices that we have in general about it. I chose to play it from a place that affects us all, from our complexes, our insecurities. We’ve all had a defining sexual moment. What happens is that we think a priori that the person who most needs care and attention in this sense is him, when like that pretty girl, whom we have seen at a party having a drink, has more insecurities with her own body. .

Laura helps him with his sexual needs, just as David since his disability has contributed a lot to her to overcome her complexes. In the end, who helps whom more? How has the script worked to support your story?

It was essential for me that he was not the protagonist, precisely so that a film on that subject would not result, so I have tried to find a balance between the two. Little by little, she manages to enter that room, until she gets to lie down on David’s bed, creating her own space. It is a film about intimacy and it is made against prejudice.

It also involves the religious element in the story. Laura comes from a very Catholic family, but she still decides to carry out this type of sexual assistance…

Yes, I liked playing with that contradiction. In fact, at one point she herself considered this as necessary help, as if she had a humanitarian alibi with it, an NGO, so that everything makes sense. And she has it, because she’s actually helping. I think that much of the prejudice we have on the subject of sex has to do with the culture in which we were raised. I studied for twelve years in a Jesuit school, so it was important to me that there was something of this embodied in the character. In fact, we have minimized it in the editing in relation to what we filmed, removing details so that it does not look like an underline.

These are the steps to request disability retirement

Can there be Catholic sectors that can be upset by this?

We have not had any such reaction. there has not been a feedback negative. But yes, for example, when I was looking for the Colegio Mayor where to film, they didn’t let us in. There was always a predisposition.

The title relates to Stravinsky’s piece of music, which is quite avant-garde, and has a lot to do with the film. I guess it’s the birth of Laura.

Yes, it is the birth of Laura. It is her consecration, as when a piece of bread becomes the host of Christ. Here there is no religious component, although there is a connotation. For me it’s like a taboo, something set aside that suddenly takes on another dimension and becomes something that can be experienced in a different way. In this case it is sex, and with this invalid person. Transgression, in general, interests me. That is not to say that the film is transgressive.

We find reflections on motherhood in the four Spanish films competing for the Golden Shell at the Festival. Here, Emma Suárez plays this mother out of all norms. Coincidence?

Well, there was nothing premeditated. It was important to highlight the presence of David’s mother, since in the investigations she was a figure that appeared a lot, since the issue of home care has traditionally been carried out by women. She seems to me an interesting and very relevant character to tell everything that is happening there.

The ending is left open, but it shows an evolution that results in a liberation for her. It leads us to various interpretations…

that’s a bit spoilers (laughs). It is about a character who is exploring and continues to search. I like open endings because I find it interesting that each one fills it out a bit in their own way and each one gives their own interpretation of it. Some people get frustrated, that’s why in the classic narrative there is always an end. But I like that people remain reflecting.