Carla Simón: “I know little about my mother. I always have to invent it”

"Sorry for arriving late.

She was breastfeeding.

I don't know if she was hungry, ”says film director Carla Simón (Barcelona, ​​35 years old) on the other side of the Zoom screen, while the sobbing of a newborn baby is heard out of frame.

During the last nine months, the Catalan director has not only enjoyed the success of

, the film with which she won the Golden Bear at the last edition of the Berlinale, but has also gestated and given birth to a boy named Manel and a new project,

.

This is the most recent installment of

, the series of short films that Miu Miu commissions each year from some of the most important directors in the world to support cinema and also give visibility to their collections.

It is the first time that a Spanish woman collaborates in this initiative, one of the most personal of the designer Miuccia Prada.

Simón received the call from Miu Miu in March, while presenting

at the Malaga Film Festival.

She accepted without hesitation.

“I knew she was crazy.

I was in the middle of promoting my film and at the beginning of my pregnancy, but I felt like doing it.

The freedom they gave me was very tempting.

In addition, I knew the stories of Miu Miu because many directors who have participated are great references for me”, she explains, citing figures such as Agnès Varda, Lucrecia Martel and Zoe Cassavetes.

shorts

They approach the feminine world with a critical eye, reflecting the complexities and fantasies of women.

The creator was seduced by the idea of ​​talking about what she was going through at that moment: her pregnancy.

“When they called me, I was thinking a lot about my biological mother, for obvious reasons.

I wanted to imagine how she experienced her motherhood.

That's why this short is a letter to my mother, but also to my son Manel.

When he is older, he will be able to see it and he will have that family memory.”

Ángela Molina plays Carla Simón's mother in this short.Brigitte Lacombe

The family is the cornerstone of the filmography of Carla Simón, who was orphaned when she was only six years old — her parents died of AIDS — and had to grow up with her uncles in La Garrotxa, in the north of Catalonia.

In

, her first feature film, released in 2017, portrays with elegant daily life the duel she experienced as a child.

In

she approaches the struggle of a saga of farmers, inspired by that of her own uncles.

Now, in

or, which he has just presented at the Venice Festival, he revisits his life and returns to places and references that are part of his sentimental education: the beaches of the Costa Brava, which he always associates with his parents;

the Badalona cemetery, where her mother and her grandparents are buried;

a song by Lole and Manuel… “In this short film I talk about memories, about family memory, but also about the things you feel when you're pregnant and the need to have your mother when you're going to be a mother,” she says.

The creative process was not easy, as he has few clear memories of his mother.

“I always have to invent it.

I know very few things and I know them from letters that she wrote to her friends”, she admits.

In a drawer in her house, she keeps some of her parents' personal belongings that have served to build the puzzle of her life and of this tape: old photographs, fragments of videos, songs.

She has also drawn on the stories she heard from her uncles and grandparents.

“They have told me the versions of it, which are very different and subjective, always subject to the fact that my parents died of AIDS.

People cover things or count them in another way.

For me it has been a frustration not being able to access what they lived through.

Inventing them through a few elements is something I have played with all my life and it is the spirit of this short.”

Director Carla Simón.Brigitte Lacombe

Letter to my mother for my son

is impregnated with an intimate, imaginative, poetic and dreamlike tone.

Some parts of this

are shot with a Super-8 camera, which enhances the intimate tone.

"For me, cinema is also this: shooting alone, the camera and me," she says.

The actress Ángela Molina plays her mother.

“When I thought about who could play her, Angela's name always came up.

Even before I had this project, I always thought of her for her role.

She is very motherly and mystical.”

Cecilia Gómez and Ainet Jounou also participate.

Delving into the past always has its emotional cost.

In his case, he assures that it helps him to reflect, although he admits that sometimes it can be exhausting.

“As much as I have very assimilated my story, sometimes I end up wanting to change the subject.

It happened to me after shooting

″, she points out.

“In this case, since it was a short film, it was less exhausting.

Also, I just became a mother, it is an intense moment, and being able to reflect on my life has been healing.

Actress Cecilia Gómez also participates in the film. Brigitte Lacombe

Simón was never interested in fashion until the premiere of

.

Designer Teresa Helbig called her and offered to dress her for film festivals.

Walking into Helbig's workshop, she became aware of how designers and craftsmen work.

"Since then, I really enjoy fashion and I pay more attention to clothes," she says.

In the short for Miu Miu, the Italian brand's designs for autumn-winter 2022-2023 accentuate the character of Molina, who plays the director's mother.

“From the photos I have seen and from what I have been told, my mother was a woman who dressed in a very particular way.

I liked the idea that she was wearing Miu Miu clothes, that she has a lot of personality”.

The director enjoyed the speed and immediacy of this project for a clothing brand, but is known for taking her time when shooting her films.

“I am very slow, I like to cook everything over low heat.

We live in a world where there is a lot of pressure on our productivity.

They have offered me to direct ten thousand different things and a thousand times they have asked me: 'Why are you taking so long?'

I go against.

I don't have as many things to tell, so I prefer to tell less and do it well”, she explains.

In fact, he is in no hurry to release his third feature film, which will be called

.

“I've been wanting to make this movie for a long time and I'm very clear about what I want.

I'm going for the third version of the script.

It's on track, but I don't know if we'll shoot next year or the year after that,” she says.

After winning the Golden Bear with

, there are many expectations placed on this film, but he is clear that he cannot control the aspirations of others.

“Also, I don't think the world needs my movies or anyone else's movies.

When they gave me the Golden Bear, I was very relieved.

It was like taking the weight off my shoulders that I had felt after Summer 1993. What happened in Berlin was something so big that I no longer feel the need to aspire to the same thing happening with my next film.

I am more relaxed.

It has helped me to prove that it is worth working the way I like: with time and with very personal things”.

The Badalona cemetery, where the director's mother and grandparents are buried.Brigitte Lacombe

For now,

is a great unknown.

Her director does not know when the script will finish, or when shooting will begin, or when the film will be released.

But she is certain that her motherhood will have a great impact on the film and her future filmography.

“Until now I had always told my stories from the same point of view: that of the last one, that of the smallest.

I have always been the youngest in my family.

Now, my parents and grandparents have died and I am a mother.

That is something new for me.”

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