Bruna Cusí accepted the leading role because of the personal challenge that the character allowed her. A tête à tête with the actor Salva Reina, in a film in which everything depends on the conversation between the two protagonists, who have to maintain the audience's attention for an hour and a half solely through dialogue. The film tells the story of Ara and Edu, lovers for a decade, when they were a novice actress and screenwriter. Aside from their official relationships, they always find a moment to be together, an oasis in their lives as a permanent couple. After a year without seeing each other, they take advantage of a film festival to meet. But not even this long-awaited truce is free from the lies and nostalgia of his real life.
“It is a format that is not at all typical in cinema, and I wanted to try it because it is very interesting on an interpretative level,” says Bruna Cusí. However, the actress has worked with works like this in theater; in fact, “it is a text that could be perfectly adapted to the theater.”
Truce(s) is the first feature film written and directed by Mario Hernández. After its world premiere in the Official Section of the 26th edition of the Malaga Festival, it arrives in cinemas this Friday, September 22. A film in which the plot develops in the relationship that two lovers have in 24 hours. A format reminiscent of the iconic first installment of Richard Linklater's trilogy, Before Dawn. But in Truce(s) not everything is so easy and innocent, and these two lovers drag a relationship that survives based on shared memories.
“I began to get into the character of Ara and discovered that, on the one hand, it was necessary for me that the entire part that is explained in relation to her job as an actress served to demystify this idea of success and show a little of the B side of All of this, the loneliness that can be felt within a festival or within an environment, which no matter how beautiful the celebration of a festival is, can often be a superficial environment. I wanted to show, to the extent I could, this double face. And the truth is that Mario was very willing to listen to my point of view from the beginning and we were able to play a lot with this idea.”
“It's a twist on couple movies. An anti-love story where the lovers are the unfaithful, the ones who deceive. Those we would never want to be and yet we are more times than we would like to acknowledge. The characters, like all of us, need a break, a truce, from everything, from everyone and from ourselves, no matter who it hurts. A moment, even if it is only one, of being authentic,” is how Hernández defines his debut film.
Most of the films in which Cusí has participated are debut films. “I like to work with someone who is explaining a first story, because I think they are the most personal of directors. In the case of Truce(s), it is not a true story of the director, but it does have a lot to do with who he is. Hernández is a person who likes to reflect, talk, and philosophize about existence, about why we do things. Furthermore, he comes from the theater, is a great reader and has read many of the classics. All of this is reflected in this film and I found it very interesting,” explains the actress.
In recent decades, there has been a boom in Spanish independent cinema, a category in which Cusí has developed almost his entire career. But although “new directors with a lot of talent are appearing,” not everything that this boom represents are positive issues. “Very independent cinema is being made also due to the economic precariousness, there is not so much money for blockbusters. Therefore, this auteur cinema is also forced to adapt to this situation and create films where there are few locations, few actors and that are simple and acceptable to shoot,” declares the actress.
Despite her career in the film industry, Cusí affirms that impostor syndrome continues to accompany her. As has happened with other previous projects, in this film he also asked himself “why me?”, but I understand that if they have chosen me it is because I have to assume that I already have a career behind me and that my work supports me. . I think my way of working is to look for the truth of the character and for it to be organic, as authentic as possible and I suppose that sometimes I have achieved it” (he laughs).
