The Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi (Buenos Aires, 1978) has come to Barcelona today to inaugurate the third edition of the Latin American film festival LATcinema Fest with Blondi, her debut feature as a director. An ode to motherhood and individual freedoms that she also stars in as the young and fun mother of a teenager with whom she shares friendship, parties and joints. The film won the award for best cast at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (BAFICI) and participated in the Horizontes Latinos section of the last San Sebastián Festival. Fonzi confesses to La Vanguardia in an interview at Casa Amèrica Catalunya that she is delighted to be in Barcelona, where she has not been for ten years, and that she will take advantage of her stay to visit some cousins that she has long loved. does not see
What led you to write this story with Laura Paredes and why did you decide to direct it?
I have been working as an actress for a long time and it's not that I wanted to be a film director. We had done a series called Soy tu fan that we co-wrote together and in which I acted when I was 24 years old. But the making part was very stressful and Blondi came about in 2017 when I read a novel whose image I loved of a mother and son who have a bond and I thought I could do something. If I wanted it to have some comedy, I thought it should be very close in age, a teenage mother, and I added ingredients that interested me for fun, although later there are topics of conversation like a single mother, women in charge of online parenting. , individual freedoms, abortion, marijuana... in short, the film touches on many topics that without being solemn allowed me to talk about them. But what was important was to do something with friends, have fun with a funny character. We started writing in 2017 and we filmed in 2022. When I had the script finished I said 'Wow, ready' and Santiago Mitre, who is my partner, told me that a script is made to film. It was a natural funnel that ended up triggering the direction of this debut film and now I don't let go of the direction anymore because I had a great time (laughs).
Wasn't anything complicated?
I think there is something about actors who direct that is different from those who are just directors. For the actor, directing is a gift. I have had help from many people. For me it has been like a new toy of pure happiness. You can see neurotized directors who have a hard time, I have experienced it. But nothing to do with my experience. Santiago was a producer and when he called me he told him: 'I'm so happy.' The last day of filming I cried.
He has chosen a casting of friendly actors...
I have known Rita (Cortese) since I was 20 years old. I have worked with Carla (Peterson) too and with Leo (Sbaraglia) a lot of times and I met Santiago Rovito who plays my son recently and I love him. He is a unique person. It was all very artisanal among everyone, being able to delegate to the team, act and direct. It was all fun.
What has the process of becoming Blondi been like?
Super relaxed. She wears very comfortable clothes. I was bald because I dyed myself white. There is a lot of work in the film, the marijuana, the shots, which we had already been putting together. Since the entire team worked, I could now devote myself to directing, because I already know how to act. It was Blondi all day during filming. I say about the joints because the film is about individual freedoms. Somehow they touch on topics like marijuana and abortion, how she raises that son...everything was in tune. We had a specific briefcase with some flowers that we cultivated conscientiously. For me, marijuana, consumed consciously, is a very healing tool. I had cancer at 40. It is a plant that the earth gives you and that has many very good qualities for insomnia, anxiety... and during the film we consciously consumed what was smoked in each scene. In fact I wanted to call the seed 'blondi' for the premiere. There were several journeys while making the film, not just directing. There is also the song 'Maria' by Blondie. My mother's name is also María. I am interested in all these personal symbolisms that give a humanity to the film beyond the conventional form.
You could say that Blondi and her son have too close a relationship. Can a mother and her son be colleagues?
I think that on the one hand you have the system that imposes a top-down way of being a mother and father, which is where one is a superhuman who faces all the problems and women have that very heavy social burden of being perfect. Blondi distances herself from this requirement and not only does she not comply with that parameter of a mother who exercises a horizontal relationship where she is who she is and does not lie. That is very healthy because you do not raise demanding humans who will later become frustrated and fall into depression. You raise a child from a truth that has to do with the emotional and it seems to me that it is the way to raise someone more prepared for this hostile world. We are used to trying to be perfect, but with children it is delicate because you do not give them room to be people with issues. And Blondi turns out to be an incredible mother to me. Who wouldn't want to have a mother like that? Someone relaxed that she doesn't lie. She loves her son and has fun with him. Nowadays, new generations consider whether or not they want to have children. It didn't occur to us to think about that possibility. All women of my generation had children and we all separated from the parents of our children and 70% of the parents do not take care of them. And Blondi shows it with grace and humor. Her son is the best thing that happened to her but she didn't want to have him. But she adapted to that reality. I don't know if one has to be her son's colleague, but one has to be her son's guide and be honest on a daily basis.
The son doesn't trust her at all either...
Because he doesn't want to hurt her. When she wants to go to Barcelona they are so close that she doesn't realize it at first. But then the genre changes and you have everything from the most intimate to comedy and road movies. It is a film that plays with genres. And that love that she has to give to her child she later gives to another person. Nobody is saved alone.
What is Dolores Fonzi like as a mother?
I can't lie. Directing is being an octopus and being a mother too. It is the reality of women that we have the ability to divide and fragment the brain into 80 parts. No man has it as an obligation. The patriarchy never protects them, so why are they going to change these benefits. As a mother, I am super loving and honest. I try for my children to be good people and to have humanity close to them. I don't impose super pretentious goals on them. I want them to be happy.
Do you think Blondi is really happy with her life?
Yes. She is a woman who has no problems. We had some gringo producers who told us that she had to smoke less and in editing I took four puffs of joints. From a conservative perspective, Blondi is a junkie single mother or it can be a sad movie. In the United States it would be a trash movie like The Florida Project. It seems impossible to conceive a film that talks about these issues but with people who don't have problems. She does not intend to enter a system of progress. Her life is fine. She has fun with her son. She has no friends her age nor a love goal. She has a mother and a sister who take up all her space and she is super happy. Who wouldn't be happy growing marijuana on the balcony or going to concerts? She has a life free of all pressure and that is why she is happy. The film is a 'comfort movie' for women. An anti-conventional women's film.
What kind of stories do you want to continue directing?
I'll do something different. But it is a project that cannot be talked about. The Government in Argentina now is a disaster.
Milei is getting fed up with culture...
It is a shame because it has nothing to do with any real economic plan or any future plan to build something, but quite the opposite. It is destroying and emptying in the face. They defund the INCAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts of Argentina) and all because. It is very strong and very hard. I campaign as much as I can to expose what I believe is an injustice. Today they no longer let employees enter the Institute. I am now in Barcelona invited to open the festival with an Argentine film. Argentine cinema is well received around the world. It provides work for young people in Argentina and the Mar del Plata festival, class A, is closed. They are idiots because they are supposedly pro-market and this is not even an economic plan. It's just going against the culture. Maybe it's leaving everyone out of work. What is happening is a disaster on another level. I hope it doesn't last long. But not only in culture but in every sense. We have already experienced this situation. But out of anger or whatever, there is something constructed of demonization as if we were idiots, a country that doesn't know how to do anything and the angry people voted for this guy who is a clown. He said that he was not going to work with the political caste and when he could he made agreements with them. He promised things and then he did the opposite. It's terrible but there is a lot to do and say. And the people who voted for him still try to support him but they are the most affected. And the crazy thing is that last year we were nominated for an Oscar with Argentina, 1985 and next year we won't have films to exhibit anywhere. There will be no Argentine cinema in 2025.
