Film by Ecuadorian Tito Jara will arrive on HBO: Co-production is a necessity and, luckily, also a possibility

The Ecuadorian filmmaker Tito Jara, remembered for his film At your back (2011), returns to undertake a tour of projections with his new film The prayer, whose premiere will be in the IFFI-GOA International Film Festival of India, held until November 28. But not only that, the film co-produced by Spain and Colombia will be broadcast by HBO Europe and by Spanish Television. “We were selected from a group of 22 films to be released to have the participation of this audiovisual conglomerate”, Jara mentions about the film that he will share with others, such as Parallel mothers, from Pedro Almodovar.

In the following interview, the filmmaker shares with EL UNIVERSO about this latest production that took him nine years. “Little by little those stories begin to arrive and you feel that irrepressible, unstoppable need to start writing and wanting it to become a movie”, claims.

1. How do you receive all this good news that is coming to you? The prayer?

I take them with great joy, with great emotion and above all with many expectations of knowing that we are going to have the possibility of connecting with a wide audience, especially after having passed a process of almost eight, nine years for the making of the film From writing the script, to finding the right development, the right partners to be able to shoot a movie and finish it. A process that is complex in any part of the world and something more in Ecuador.

2. What about reaching a diverse culture like India?

Going to a completely different audience, in a different cultural context, far removed from the one the film even deals with, makes me very curious about how that audience can receive the story I’m telling.

3. When would it be released in Ecuador?

I hope that the first months of next year, April would be ideal for me.

4. What is your movie about The prayer?

It is the story of a small scammer who lives in the city of Quito and who hears that in a northern neighborhood, which is called Atucucho and which is at the beginning of the Pichincha volcano, there is a girl that many people believe is miraculous, so he He approaches the family of this girl and proposes to create a great business and it works. The business becomes so big and so lucrative that it is getting out of hand. You know when money is involved, things tend to go wrong.

It evolves through other paths such as the family relationship, the exploitation that is made of this girl and the relationship that ‘the prayer’ has with this family.

5. How did this story come into your life?

There are things that happen around me that stick with me. In the case of The prayer It happens that a long time ago I went to a funeral and at that funeral there was a priest who gave a present body mass, but something did not fit me, the clothes were not exactly what I expected from a priest. Then I began to ask who had brought the priest … until we got to the owners of the room and they said that he must be a scammer who always gets in, pretends to give a mass and takes the alms and runs away.

After many years, I never forgot the scammer. So I start to ramble and I gave his activity a name, I put the prayer. I started to think that if this guy with this amoral quality is able to profit from the pain of others, from the beliefs of others, what would he be able to do if I gave him the opportunity to create a great business. So there I heard the story of a miraculous girl from Manabí called Santa Gema … and finally I gave them the opportunity to meet him and the miraculous girl, in Quito.

6. Once again Quito is the scene of a movie of yours

For me Quito is important, it is a character. I like to speak from the things that I feel about this city.

7. Its cast includes the stellar performances of Carlos Valencia and Andrés Crespo. In this way, the public will relive the experience of seeing them perform together.

Sure, together they are wonderful. In this movie they have that position of antagonists between them, I hope people like it a lot because there is a very special dynamic between them in acting.

8. Do you consider co-production a good strategy to reach other spaces, even if this means sharing the nationality of the film?

Co-production is a necessity and, luckily, also a possibility, through agreements that countries have. For example, there is an Ibero-American co-production agreement in which Ecuador is signed, hopefully there are more agreements. This possibility allows us to find strategic allies to help you build that film, to make it come true, even having access to more sources of financing, you are no longer alone. Somehow, you understand that your audience is not only that of Ecuador, but that there is an audience in different spaces that can access our stories and may find it as attractive as the stories that come to us from other places seem to us.

That does not have to affect the cultural environment in which the film is set, it does not necessarily mean that your film has to take place in those other countries. It is beneficial in every way, hopefully we can co-produce much more.

9. What about the process of knocking on doors in the big cinemas of the country?

It is important that we talk with the exhibitors, I believe that there is openness on both sides, to understand what our true needs are in the face of the system in which we all work. I believe that it is a process, the more we talk, the more we understand each other, things will be beneficial for all the elements that are involved in the system. (I)