The Ecuadorian Javier Andrade released today in the Spanish city of Malaga its reflexive bomb, Unseenan intimate, intense, feminine and terribly distressing film that falls entirely on the shoulders (pun intended) of its protagonist, Anahí Hoeneisen, Luisa.
“I was looking to make a very beautiful film, very beautiful aesthetically, about a person who is very lonely”, explained the Ecuadorian at a press conference held after the screening of the film, which competes for the Biznaga de Oro at the 25th Malaga Film Festival.
Javier Andrade’s film competes at Malaga Spanish Festival
The idea of Unseenhe explained, was born from the collaboration with the actress, who is also co-author of the script, and her husband, the photographer Andrés Andrade (nothing to do with the director), to create “a character that would draw a type of melancholy or depression and make that depression for a female character”.
Thus, “the film is made for her”, and they found it interesting to present it on the highest scale of Ecuadorian society: “As the heiress of the hacienda, of the great owners of the fiefdom, and to see where that was in the 21st century “, has said.
Unseen is all there is to this poor little rich girl’s life, accused of having wanted to harm her baby, and that the viewer knows when she has left a psychiatric hospital after several months – her dye line tells it very intelligently -, who takes the return home badly between pills and forbidden drinks, dissatisfied and uncomfortable, but above all, invisible.
He only finds peace next to his tata, a Quechua Indian who superbly plays the amateur actress Matilde Lagos -Andrade found her in a theater center for the elderly, his “indigenous Dua Lipa”, he says, because she also sings and dances-, the only that calms her and understands her. A mother who is not hers, but who cradles her as she does not know how to do with her baby.
“The idea was to do the reverse of my first film, It is better not to talk about certain things)2012, shot in the Andes, with a voice in off that dominates the narration and of male characters”.
For this reason, the director points out, “We deliberately decided to make it more of an experience film than a plot film, again in contrast to my previous film, which had a very obvious plot. We believed that a powerful performance would serve to sustain an ambiguous situation, but very concrete in the cinematographic”.
In the same way, she points out the importance of silences, “noisy silences”, she says, while the noises are not heard, also part of this invisibility of a woman incapable of governing her pain, who injures herself and degrades herself just to see if, that way, you can with the penalty.
“We wanted to build a situation and an environment that triggered issues of class, mental health and loneliness, depression is something that worries me personally and when Anahí entered we decided that it would be something specifically feminine”Andrade clarifies.
The director recalls that there were a couple of ideas that were at the origin: “That story of the one who went to get tobacco and didn’t come back.” And a reflection made by his brother: “People have children as anchors to save their relationship, but sometimes that doesn’t work.”
They analyzed what would happen to this woman; That led them to postpartum, to investigate the crying, the loneliness, the feeling of guilt.
The pandemic then worked in his favor, giving him “a year and a half” to assemble the film “and create the atmosphere that works.”
The film ends with a Quechua lullaby, sung in one go without interruption by Matilde Lagos, “Manila”, while looking through a huge window towards the forest through which Luisa has disappeared. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
