Two Juan Pablo Villalobos enter the Obaga bookstore in Barcelona together. They both sport white t-shirts, gray sports jackets and even two identical pairs of blue sneakers. This metaliterary scene was not part of a new episode of Black Mirror; It happened on a Thursday night in the Catalan capital. One of the two, in fact, was the renowned Mexican writer, and the other, the actor Darío Yazbek, in charge of giving life to Villalobos in the film adaptation of his novel I'm not going to ask anyone to believe me.
“If it were another of my books, I wouldn't feel as nervous as I feel today,” Villalobos confesses to La Vanguardia. The winner of the Herralde Prize, I'm Not Going to Ask Anyone to Believe Me, stands out as one of the author's most intimate narratives. It is an autofiction, set between the years 2004 and 2005, when Villalobos arrived from Mexico to Barcelona to do a doctorate at the UAB. Although he works with autobiographical material, the plot is not limited to reality, and immerses the reader in a universe where the absurd ends up being normal and hilarity is intertwined with the everyday and surreal.
In the plot, Juan Pablo's dream of studying in Barcelona turns into a nightmare when he involuntarily becomes involved with a criminal group that forces him to seduce the daughter of an important Catalan businessman. The plot unfolds at times like a drama, immerses itself in police intrigue and even incorporates romantic elements. It integrates various genres but at no time loses sight of humor.
The film had a special presentation in Girona cinemas. The real Villalobos, the fictional one, and its director, Fernando Frías de la Parra (I'm not here anymore), were present there. “The difficult thing was choosing what to leave out and what things to translate to the screen,” explains the director, who was also in charge of the film's script. For this, the author's help throughout the entire process was crucial. “There are things about Juan Pablo in the film that I recognize and are not in the novel,” the author himself admits. The adaptation effectively captures the essence of the book and although it takes liberties, it manages to expand the universe created by Villalobos without abandoning the original spirit of the book.
“For a film to work as such, it has to sacrifice some things and create others,” explains Villalobos. The first big difference is that the film is set in the present day. The epistolary question, very present in the novel, is then replaced by text messages and WhatsApp audios. The city of Barcelona remains the main protagonist, but the locations are not exactly the same. The Autonomous University is replaced by the Pomeu Fabra and the Plaza del Sol de Gracia, “a crucial setting in the book”, is replaced by the Plaza Raspall. “What interests me about an adaptation is what is not in the book. If you are not willing to detach yourself, do not sell the rights.” The casting of the film is just as eclectic as the characters in the book. The cast includes the Catalan Anna Castillo, the Argentine Juan Minujín, and the Mexican Alexis Ayala, among others.
“I am convinced that I am not going to ask anyone to believe me can be adapted to make a good film,” director Fernando Frías de la Parra wrote to Villalobos in an email on January 25, 2018. Five years later, The author's first film adaptation is a success that brought his work to a new generation of viewers. The film is now available to watch on Netflix.
