Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas during a filming COURTESY
The film director Lorenzo Vigas is a Venezuelan artist who has lived in Mexico for 20 years and who in 2015 became the first Latin American to win the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, the most important award of the event, with his film
From There
.
Six years later, his new film,
La Caja,
is one of 21 that have just been selected once again to compete for the same award.
"I am very obsessive and had great pressure, obviously, for having won the Golden Lion," Vigas told EL PAÍS about his new film, which he filmed between 2019 and 2020. "We had a lot of material, we filmed for many weeks, and it took me a long time to edit it.
But when I see it, now, I think it was worth this long process. "
More information
Venice film festival celebrates the return of divos and great directors
La Caja
, like
Desde Allá
, focuses on a theme that has been central to his work: fatherhood. In
From Allá
, which followed the love affair of two men in Caracas, a young gang member and a dentist, the big question that constantly haunted was how having grown up with abusive fathers affects the psyche of men. "Is your dad dead?" The boy asks the older man at one point. "No," he replies. "But I wish it were."
La Caja
is one of four films by Latin American directors that were nominated this year. The others are:
Spencer
, by Chilean Pablo Larraín, who focuses on the life of Lady Di;
Official Competition
of the Argentines Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, where Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas perform; and
Sundown by
the Mexican Michel Franco, whose film
Nuevo Orden
was also awarded last year in Venice. "The strength of Latin American cinema is evident," says Vigas about the nominations. "Four films that in the competition is further proof that we have the ability to tell stories that interest the rest of the world a lot." With
the box,
The Venezuelan director shoots a feature film in Mexico for the first time.
EL PAÍS interviewed him about his new work.
Question
.
What is this new movie inspired by?
Answer
. The heart of the film is a bit the theme that I have been developing for some time, which is the theme of fatherhood. Here it is about a boy from Mexico City who goes to the north of Mexico to look for his father, who he believes is dead, and they give him a box with bones. But suddenly he sees a man who is identical to his father, walking down the street, and he goes and tells him that he is his father. But this man denies it. This man tells you that he is wrong, that he is confused. Is this man lying to you because he is hiding something? Or is it that the child is really clinging and will grab onto anyone because of that great need they have to have a father that they did not have?
That is the question of the film, what are we willing to do for a father, for a family.
What are we willing to do to belong to a country that is matriarchal, but where the presence or lack of a father within families sometimes determines the rest of your life.
Many times everything we become depends a lot on how that relationship with our father was, or that not relationship with him.
Still from the film 'La caja' by Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas COURTESY
Q.
You have also been a director of documentaries dealing with fatherhood -
Elephants Never Forget
and
The Orchid Seller
.
Does the film also seek to document the tragedy of the thousands of disappeared and their children in Mexico?
R.
I came here to Mexico 20 years ago, and I am already Mexican, even though I was not born here. All my work I have developed from Mexico. I arrived with the illusion of becoming a film director, I had not done anything before, and this is where I learn to make films, where I become a director. In that sense, for me this film is a gift that I give to this country that was so generous to me and where I was trained as a director. I felt that my career was not complete without making a movie here.
And since I arrived, one is sensitive and naturally the issues of the country are affecting you.
Both the issue of fatherhood, which is an issue that is not only of Mexico, but of the rest of Latin America.
But that issue in Mexico is very strong, the issue of fatherhood, and the issue of missing people.
So writing the script these themes came out naturally.
My intention was not to do a study on the disappeared.
My intention was to tell the story of this child in search of this father figure.
Q.
On this issue of fatherhood, how is the angle in
La Caja different
from your other works?
R.
Here is a little more the consequences of the lack of a father.
Although the consequences of this lack are also seen in the previous films, here a little is to take it to the extreme.
What would you be willing to do to keep a family and have a father you didn't have?
How far could you go?
Or could you just make it up and hang on to it?
And what consequences can that bring?
I dig deeper into the consequences that this can have on a 13-year-old.
Q.
Tell us a little about the production.
Where and how was it filmed?
A.
I knew it was going to be in northern Mexico, but I didn't know where. I began to travel all over the north of the Republic, and I arrived in Chihuahua, and there I said 'well, it has to be here'. Because of the overwhelming beauty of the surroundings and that contrast between how beautiful and how terrible reality is there. That contrast seemed very interesting to me for the film, because the child comes loaded with very strong emotions, reaches an environment where there is a very strong reality, but there is a visual contrast of an environment that is really spectacular.
Visually, in addition, I wanted to film in 35 millimeters, which was a great effort because now almost nothing is done like that in cinema, everything is done on video.
The film is made in just 35 millimeters to really try to feel as organic as possible.
The 35 is still the closest thing to the human eye, because light passes through the film, and the eye also passes through it.
The video, on the other hand, is generated electronically, and the light does not pass through the celluloid.
So when you watch a movie in the cinema, the most emotional way to perceive the image is still 35, despite all the technological advances.
Q.
Would you describe it as a mystery movie?
A.
I really like to play with genres, and this would be an adventure drama and thriller.
And it also has elements of mystery.
The image on the box already has a load of mystery of its own.
Q.
Are we going to find out what's inside the box?
R.
And that is inside your box.
That is the question.
We all have a box in life.
Some of us can open it, and others we can't.
That is also a bit of what the film leaves you: what is inside your box and each other's box?
Q.
Was it difficult to deal with the pressure of having won the Golden Lion in 2015 to make this new film?
R.
Look, yes, you do.
There is no way not to have it.
I think you have to learn to live with it and recognize and use it as well.
Use that pressure.
I used it.
I started this project with a rather ambitious vision.
I wanted the little story of this boy who goes to look for his father's remains to grow as long as possible.
That's what the pressure helped me for.
Then he went to arrive in Chihuahua and film in ten different locations in the state, from Ciudad Juárez to Creel.
We had an overwhelming snowfall in Creel, which is very rare in Mexico, but we did get an impressive snowfall.
All this I told you about 35 millimeters, about making it into a movie.
I think that the pressure did help me to make the project grow as much as possible.
Subscribe here
to the
newsletter
of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of this country
