Ana Cristina Barragán navigates affection, abandonment and fragility in ‘La piel octopus’: It is a film that was difficult to give birth to

“I have always been a supermarine”, declares Ana Cristina Barragan with a genuine happiness that goes back to the woman who goes along the beach capturing microscopic beings with her analog camera. The Ecuadorian filmmaker separates time from her technical tests to talk to EL UNIVERSO about her second feature film octopus skin, That premiered last Thursday, January 19 in movie theaters in the country. That she is excited for her new premiere? Yes. What was a difficult film to finish?, too. But what they will see on movie screens – she promises – will be something sensory, full of aromas, creatures and with a story that will not leave viewers homework.

Ana Cristina Barragán celebrates that her film ‘La piel octopus’ participates in the WIP Latam of Zinemaldia

“The name of the film alludes to two layers, one is a layer of skin, in which the film is told through the bodies in the sand, the rocks… the relationship between these bodies and their privacy in these bodies, which are one way on the island and change when they are in the city”describes Barragan.

He advances that his feature film is a visual exploration, full of marine creatures, which show all “that animal world that is in the depths”, as a representation of “this loneliness and isolation of the characters” that are part of his film, as well as shows “its fragility, beauty and its strangeness”.

Among the locations that are part of the film, he mentions Ancón (Santa Elena), Quito, Guayaquil; While the external locations are international, a part of this film was edited in Spain, colored in Greece, while the music and sound were made in Mexico and Ecuador.

octopus skin It follows a family that, by their mother’s decision, lives on an island and has never been to the city. This is how her three children: two twins (Iris and Ariel, 17 years old) and an older sister (Lía) grow up in very intimate contact with nature. “They are characters that have freedom in their corporeality, in their movement, in their ways of communicating, like sometimes they don’t use words so much. His sexuality is more infantile and voracious.” Explain.

Objects that reach the sea as selfie sticks, tamagotchis and others draw the attention of Iris, who decides to go to the city in her eagerness to defy her mother and separate from her twin brother. “They go and explore this city like the first time”, Barragan account. The noisy streets, the shopping centers, the rejection of her father and her mourning mark Iris’s path in understanding her own being and her love for her essence and identity.

The same as Sunrisethe filmmaker once again includes children in her cast, although a little older, aged between 15 and 16. “It’s like an age that I find fascinating, because there is a kind of spontaneity,” He says. The cast of him lead him Isadora Chávez Ron, Juan Francisco Vinueza and Hazel Powel, young actors making their film debut with her.

He is also part of the cast Cristina Marchan, theater and film actress with more than 15 years of experience, member of the Malayerba group and actress in works such as me.de.as (2022, Gabriela Ponce) and Unseen (2022, Javier Andrade).

experimenting

In order to create the bodily movement of each one of the characters and reinitiate herself from what was adapted since she was a child, Barragán recounts that she repeatedly went out for a walk in the open air concentrating on the noise and the new. “I worked with the actors on the new textures, on the new flavors”, indicates.

He also used past sensations. “Spending a lot of time in nature and then going back to the city, those crashes always generated very strong feelings in me.”

But, yes, he says that it was not very difficult to get to that. “Someone once told me, we all have an island we want to return to”declares the filmmaker, who compacts this idea with the comments of people who have already seen her film. “The feeling of people is to return to something lost in themselves.”

It is for this reason that he warns that viewers will find themselves with “a film where the weather at sea is different… with a film that does not explain everything, where you have to complete the second part and you cannot do the job. It passes through you in other ways, more instinctive, more unconscious, a different visual and sound experience”he expresses, and adds that it is a film that invites us to think about ties, about affection, about abandonment.

How it all started?

He says that it all started with an analog photography project called ‘Childhood Space’, a project in which she photographs on a beach near Guayaquil, where she also spent a lot of time, from her childhood “taking photos of microscopic beings, that is, small beings from a pool where sea urchins and slugs live, where years ago there were seahorses, algae.”

“From there begins an exploration of the very close beach. I also start to take photos of the caves and the rocks, I start to be fascinated with this place that has always been mine, but through photography and I decide that I want to film a movie here”, share.

“After doing Sunrise, one of the challenges I had in mind was to launch myself into making a visually very impressive film. I wanted to make a film where the visual universe and the environment, above all, the atmosphere were from another world, without leading it to something fantastic”Add.

Barragán, who lived for two years in San Sebastián by the sea, declares that he treasures moments of extreme nature. “Shooting the movie by the sea was so nice”, says Barragán, who would always like to have reasons to shoot near the sea.

from the bowels

It reconfirms that it is a film made from its most mysterious depths, in which life’s setbacks were overcome with its commitment, respect and love for cinema. “It is a film that comes from a very instinctive place, it is a film that was difficult to give birth to, it is a pandemic film that survived the pandemic, filming stopped, it was filmed in three parts, which required a lot of writing time, from montage, which changed with me”, maintains of the film, whose script took him four years to write.

But the effort has earned him some awards, recognitions and tours of important cinematographic meetings. The film had its world premiere in 2022 in the San Sebastian Film Festival, in Spain. In addition, she was selected in the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece and won the award for best film at the Canary Islands International Author Film Festival in Spain. This year he plans to continue his route at international festivals.

He mentions that he The project was financed mainly with international funds, and in Ecuador it had the support of the extinct Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual CreationWide Shot Films and other private companies.

He is currently working on a feature film that will be called ivywith the Mexican actress Karla Souza. He is also working on two analog photography projects, Espacio Infancia and Turkey X ray.

Where to see ‘The Octopus Skin’?

It is available at Cinemark, Supercines, Multicines.

Ana Cristina Barragan is a screenwriter and director from Quito. In 2016 she conquered with her debut work Alba, whose international premiere was at the rotterdam festival where she won an award and was selected in the san sebastian festival, here he obtained a Special Mention from the jury. On its way through more than one hundred festivals, Alba has obtained more than 35 international awards. The film was the representative of Ecuador for the Oscar awards. (YO)