In 1988, Isabel Coixet (Barcelona, 1960) presented her debut film, Too Old to Die Young, in the new directors section of the San Sebastián Festival. In the last edition of the San Sebastian contest, she participated for the first time in the Official Section with the special out-of-competition screening of the documentary El sostre groc and now, the Catalan filmmaker is back again, already for the Golden Shell, with Un amor, adaptation from the acclaimed novel of the same name by Sara Mesa published in 2020 that will hit theaters on November 10.
Starring Laia Costa and Hovik Keuchkerian, Coixet explores in the film the internal contradictions of Nat, a thirty-year-old woman who escapes a painful past as a translator in a mediation office for refugees and seeks refuge in a town in La Escapa where she tries to make a fresh start. zero. With hardly any money, she rents a run-down house from a grumpy landlord who belittles her and gives her a dog that has been abused to keep her company. In that town, the woman's arrival arouses excessive interest among some neighbors, especially one who is nicknamed 'the German' and from whom she accepts a disturbing sexual proposal.
What captivated you about reading 'Un amor' to want to transfer it to the big screen?
Sara Mesa seems to me to be one of the most interesting voices in contemporary Spanish literature. I think she has her own style, a harsh and uncomforting tone that I really like and I basically identified with the protagonist of the book. I fell in love with the novel and wanted to make a movie.
How did Sara Mesa get involved in the project?
I bought the rights and she was very generous. I offered her if she wanted to participate in the script, but she was immersed in writing another novel. She told me to move forward myself.
Some things have changed in the book...
I think the essence of the book is there. The only key thing I wanted to add is where she comes from, which wasn't so clear in the book.
Do you think Nat is a mysterious woman?
I don't see her as mysterious. I understand her a lot. At different times in my life I have been this woman. There are people who live wonderful, happy and very rational lives. But life is not like that. Most people are chaotic, a roller coaster, with times when you are good and others when you are bad. And there are times when you become obsessed with people who are not going to bring you anything good, you see it and still you continue.
The film demystifies the countryside as an idyllic place to start a new life
It is a romantic idea that... wherever you move, the problems or advantages you have you take with you. I don't have a romantic idea of life in the villages at all. I think the same dynamics as a city are repeated. What happens is that in a town everything is on the surface.
Why does Nat put up with living in that house that is collapsing?
Anyone who sees the precariousness of certain jobs, such as translation, can tell you. It's the only house he can afford. There are many houses of this type with landlords who rent them for 250 euros without a contract and she goes to the place where she can pay what she can. My neighbor has spent three years translating 'The Brothers Karamazov' into French and when she told me what she earned you wonder how she can live like that with such brutal dedication.
The characters of Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo and Francesco Carril create an increasingly uncomfortable tension around Nat
It's that microaggression thing... I already know that there is a lot of suffering in the world. I think I have it quite clear on the map of world horror, but there is also something that is the continuous microaggression of someone who with good intentions wants to help you but is actually telling you: 'You are not doing it well, you are not living well. 'How are you going to plant a garden if you have no idea?' Those types of questions that all women have had to answer in our lives. I know that many men feel very confused now, but women are also confused. What's more, our confusion is twofold because the confusion of the world in general is combined with a series of attributes that a society values through them, which is seduction, this thing of wanting to be liked, but not wanting to be liked. We don't do anything to be liked but we really want it, it's very contradictory, and there's a lot of that in the film.
Nat lets himself be helped in exchange for sex
It's a transaction, which is the key to the book and the movie. How do we judge that transaction? There are many people who don't understand it. In fact, Sara Mesa jokes that Nat is the most hated character in contemporary Spanish literature and I know that there are people who hate this character. I don't.
Do you think the public can empathize with what you do?
I hope so, because if not they have a problem (laughs). It's funny to me when there are people who don't understand why Nat goes to bed with such a fat man. Have they only fucked Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves or hot guys? I'm already laughing at the word normative.
And from the transaction to a connection that becomes an obsession
Does it come from masochism, from the fact that she is seeking to punish herself, from a sexual hookup, from a projection? Well, it can come from many things. It's funny to me that we now talk about female desire as if desire were a monolithic thing, without edges... it's a very complex thing. There is a mental component that has to do with your nature, your past.
The film reflects the weight of the community on the individual
The fact of being in a town indicates that you have to explain your life and the world of microaggression is there all the time. Even the best people can hurt you, ignore you, and that is seen in the story. One of the hardest moments is with the couple she helps. The man tells him: 'It's not right for you to be seen with us.' That's something that has happened to me. I don't know how to prevent 10-year-old girls in Afghanistan from committing suicide or from marrying 40-year-old men, but I can, on a small scale, not screw up the lives of those closest to me. These everyday microaggressions are what undermine us.
After Foodie love, you work again with Laia Costa. Was he always your first choice for Nat?
Always. Because I think she is an extraordinary actress. I know her work capacity well and in this case I knew that Nat is absolutely a character far removed from Laia. She has nothing to do with Nat. Instead, she is able to understand her. She is a very intelligent, sensitive and chameleon-like actress to frightening levels.
And with Hovik?
I had seen him in the series Antiriots, by Sorogoyen, and I really liked the few moments in which he is calm, looks and listens. I always imagined Alemán as him, although in the book he is described in a completely different way. I think his character is an animal, a pragmatic man, an outsider like Nat is, that's what unites them. She makes timid attempts to integrate and he doesn't give a damn about integrating and is calm in his world. He doesn't want complications, but life is complicated.
And then there is Sieso, Nat's inseparable dog
It's a love. There is an incredible connection between them. Her name is actually Flor, and she has a look that projects many things. We all became immensely fond of him during filming.
