Carla Simón: "If I hadn't been a film director I would have had a gazillion children"

The date with Carla Simón (Barcelona, ​​35 years old) takes place under a fig tree in the center of Madrid saved by a neighborhood movement.

The filmmaker, who first conquered the public with

, an autobiographical story about her integration into a new clan after the death of her parents, tells in

, his latest film (winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin), the struggle of a lineage of small farmers —inspired by their own uncles— who want to save their fruit trees from a new crop: solar panels.

In "the least hot summer of the rest of our lives", when the debate on the energy transition and the food crisis make all the headlines, she has put aside the pessimism that she reflects so tenderly in this film to focus on Manel, the a child who has given her, the great portraitist of the family, her own.

Ask.

He has said that for

one of his inspirations was

but neither in this film nor in the previous one is there any kind of anger or resentment, rather an understanding look.

Why is that?

Response.

I believe in the complexity of things and that nothing is black or white in life.

Of course there are things that are just bad, but in general I am interested in human dilemmas where all positions are valid and where one can make a mistake or do something that is good in their way of thinking or living and not for someone else.

I like characters with contradictions that make them confront each other.

P.

And who taught you to think like that?

R.

I grew up in a family where things were talked about a lot and for some reason I have always had that ability to put myself in another's place.

When there are athletes who win many medals, for example, I always think about how their brothers will feel.

It happens to me that I often go with those who lose or at least I imagine how they will see the world.

P.

It is striking that you mention the possibility of competitiveness and jealousy between siblings because many people have a hard time admitting that they exist...

R.

As I changed families in preadolescence and for me that new structure was not given, that is, I could not have had it, I learned to value it a lot.

Also to analyze it a lot.

At 12 years old I would sit at a family meal, watch the dynamics and then always ask my mother a million questions.

Note that sometimes I think I make films because I am very gossipy and I love to notice the emotions of others.

Sometimes I think that I make movies because I am very gossipy and I love to notice the emotions of others”

Q.

Have you ever been forced to take sides in a family situation?

R.

We are always taking sides in life, although what often happens in families is that we do not speak clearly.

There are many problems of solitary confinement and we only dare to take sides by speaking behind the scenes.

P.

And has it ever happened to you that you had to leave the relationship with a loved one due to a conflict between “the elders”, as happens to the children in the film?

R.

Yes, and it is curious because I always play a conciliatory role, perhaps because of understanding the parties, although later inside I also have my opinion.

More information

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Q.

With your conciliatory character, was it easy for you to shoot with 12 non-professional actors?

A.

No, no.

It was a very, very difficult shoot, with a lot of tensions.

We worked in small spaces and the chaos was constant, which was also what we were looking for. Of course, one of the first days I had to give a couple of screams.

I was horrified, but then the truth is that it worked like hell [laughs].

P.

The enemy of the

family are the solar panels, which represent the necessary energy transition and, therefore, it is easy to understand that there are neither good nor bad.

Which enemy would you unequivocally oppose?

R.

To a wholesale company that buys land and puts people to work intensively.

In the case of the Alcarràs area it is called Nufri, although there are many others.

In this agricultural model, the large corporations do not care how the land will look like for the children, the grandchildren, the following generations.

What happens is that the previous model, the family model, is already in the hands of people with a very high average age who do not want the following generations to dedicate themselves to that.

It was a very, very difficult shoot, with a lot of tensions.

We worked in small spaces and the chaos was constant”

Q.

Why don't they want to?

A.

The uncertainty about fruit prices is so great that many of them sometimes find it more worthwhile for a hail to come and destroy their harvest so that the insurance covers the disaster than to work the entire harvest without knowing what is going on. to charge

The fruit brought a lot of money in this area in the past and many families were able to live very well.

Now it is unsustainable.

Q.

And how does your family manage to put up with it?

R.

Well, they endure because they are two brothers and they support each other and then they also have a couple of pig farms that give more money.

P.

And what do you think of the nuclear ones, for example?

R.

I am afraid to give a strong opinion because I do not have it very formed, but I think that it could provisionally be a solution.

Q.

Your own sister appears in the film in the character of the urbanite who only visits and really only lives the romantic part of the country.

Does her family see you like this?

R.

It is a recurring joke, yes, because both my sister and I live in Barcelona and precisely because we are from abroad we had to be very careful when putting together the film because I was very afraid that they would not feel represented. .

The co-writer and I were there for a couple of summers installed to understand these people well and they themselves were afraid.

They told us: “Do you want to make a movie?

But you're not going to laugh at us, are you?

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Q.

And now that you have just had your first child.

What fear has appeared that she did not expect at all?

R.

The lack of time.

I really like my job and I already sensed that reconciling it was going to be difficult because it is very, very intense to create a film.

If it weren't for this job, I would have loved to have a gazillion children because that's what I've experienced and I think it's very nice.

Although I do not rule anything out, because there are many family models: I am adopted, for example.

So maybe one day I say: well I don't want to make any more movies because I want to have a very big family [laughs].

P.

That type of huge and close-knit families in a rural context, like the one seen in the film, can't they be very suffocating morally?

R.

The idea of ​​continuing with a tradition entails very rigid structures.

In my house it has not been like that: my brother is a musician, my sister is an actress and right now my parents are not dedicated to doing anything, although they have been creative too, they have accompanied us in our wishes and have let us do what we wanted .

At the same time my grandparents had to eat with potatoes everything they expected their children to be.

Q.

Have you ever mentioned the importance of that moment when a child realizes that adults are also wrong?

When did you find out?

R.

Well, maybe that day when an adult ends up crying in an argument or one of those drunken sprees that has consequences and one ends up connecting the dots…

The idea of ​​continuing with a tradition entails very rigid structures.

In my house it has not been like that”

P.

Can you imagine a boy coming out of the closet in Alcarràs?

R.

For me the theme of the role of women and men in that film was very important because I wanted to make a portrait, which means that what you see is not what you would do, but it reflects that moment and those customs.

I have a cousin who is in the feminist assembly of Alcarràs and is at the top with that issue.

But of course, she is 16 years old!

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