After El ventre del mar, the filmmaker Agustí Villaronga really wanted to carry out Loli Tormenta, a humanist story in the key of a family comedy that he wrote together with Mario Torrecillas. He filmed it last summer in various locations in Barcelona, already very sick from cancer that ended his life on January 22 at the age of 69, just the day of the Gaudí awards gala.
This Friday, his posthumous film hit theaters starring Susi Sánchez in the role of a modern and all-terrain grandmother, a woman who achieved fame as an athlete some time ago and now must take care of her two grandchildren and a mortgage left to her by her daughter at death
The three live in a modest house on the outskirts of the Catalan capital. When Loli begins to enter an advanced process of Alzheimer's, the minors will do everything in their power so that they are not separated from their beloved 'grandma' and they will take care of her, with all possible ingenuity, to hide the disease.
Brand new winner of the Goya for best supporting actress for Cinco lobitos, Susi Sánchez (Valencia, 1955) speaks on the phone with La Vanguardia after returning from shooting in Peru Reinas, by Klaudia Reynicke.
I had not worked with Agustí before. How did the project come to you?
I knew Agustí for his exquisite work and it was a pending account to work with him, although he had never verbalized it. It was such a great admiration that she felt for his work that she dreamed of the possibility of meeting him and working with him. That gift was brought to me by life. I was very lucky, even in those terrible circumstances, because the filming was terrible, seeing the suffering of a person like him who did not complain but was fatal. The film was shot in those conditions and with temperatures of 40 degrees in a house where there was hardly any space for the equipment... The working conditions of the shooting were very harsh because the film had to be made no matter what at that time. In fact, there was no time to rehearse, and Agustí apologized for that. It was hard to detach myself, being a comedy, from the suffering of the director. But I can tell you that I have learned a lot from this experience.
How did you meet and how did you approach the film?
I was closing the D'A Film Festival in Barcelona with Cinco lobitos and he came to see the film because a mutual friend had told him to come see me, since the protagonist of his next film had become ill and he had a certain urgency to find surrogate. We talked for a bit and I told him to take the time he needed, that he shouldn't feel pressured by me, but that he was available. I read the script and I wanted to be in that movie and take the trip with him. Having the experience of making a character that is like a comic, that has nothing to do with other characters I've done and that was very appealing to me. And we discovered it between the two of us. I was very dedicated. In general, everything flowed quite smoothly, despite the circumstances.
Looks like she's specializing in granny roles. What was she most attracted to in her character?
At my age, that's what I get (laughs). I believe that the role of Juliet, from Shakespeare, they are no longer going to give it to me. Although it could be in a version of the third age! What most attracted me to Loli was her vital ability to get ahead in life. She is a woman who does not think, she is pure impulse, survival instinct to get ahead like the races that she tells that she did. There is a similarity between overcoming challenges in sports and in life and she attracted me that great capacity for love of life and the purity of things. She how honest she is and how she treats the children and cares for them. The fact that she is a fighter. And a key reference was Agustí and the moment she was living.
Have you faced so many obstacles in your life as Loli?
Yes, like everyone. Life is one obstacle after another for everyone. That's why I like how the character is told, that he doesn't eat his head with anything and moves on. Living in the moment teaches me a lot. I think it's a lesson for everyone.
The film also talks about the drama of Alzheimer's, a disease that has already been addressed in other projects
Every Alzheimer's is different. He made a woman with Alzheimer's in Julieta, by Almodóvar, but she was another type. And also in a short. I have known about the disease for a long time because my mother was in a nursing home for the last three years of her life and when she went to see her there were all kinds of cases. I let myself be guided a lot by Agustí's vision, because her mother had Alzheimer's, it was a disease she was very close to and she wanted to talk about it. But there is also the drama of old age and childhood as useless elements, because our society sees us that way. The older ones because we no longer give up and the children because they still don't give up. And there is a complaint about this, what happens is that it is told with humor. It's a drama with a tinge of comedy that lightens it up, but the result, even though I haven't seen the full movie, has a very bright light treatment. Also the tone with which Agustí has directed it is luminous. He speaks in a hopeful way about life, the value it has. That's what he wanted to tell.
The film mixes very young actors with veterans like Celso Bugallo and Fernando Esteso
Agustí called some fellow professional actors. With Fernando he had already worked and they were friends and the children were the first time they were in front of the camera and it was difficult for them to concentrate. But for me they were a support and we became good friends from the beginning. I told them that I was going to call them by the character's name and that they could call me yaya, Loli or abu. Anything but Susie. It was like a game.
Is she as good a sportswoman as Loli?
No way! When I was young I was and I liked athletics very much. But I haven't played any sport in a long time. The last thing I've done is play ping-pong (laughs).
How was the last time you saw Agustí? Did she say goodbye to him?
After filming, I saw him again in Madrid, where the chemo process had already begun again, and he was almost finishing editing the film. It is that he passed away as soon as he finished mounting it. It was an incredible effort. I said goodbye to him in Madrid. I thanked him and a hug. I left very worried because my interest, more than knowing how my work had turned out, was to know how he was. We also had a good time on set. He was very vital and explained things to you, gave you examples and involved you in everything.
He has been chaining one film after another for a season. What are you working on now?
I have a project with Ramón Salazar and I am delighted to work with him again after La enfermedad del domingo. That was the gift of my life with a custom character. The next one will not be the same but it will be a very exciting story that I want to tell.
