It's been six months since she won the brand new Concha d'Or at the Sant Sebastià Festival for Los reyes del mundo and Colombian Laura Mora still remembers that moment with goosebumps. "I could never have imagined that we would take home the award. The presentation of the film was so special...", says the director about her second feature film, a road movie that narrates the dangerous journey from Medellín to Nechí (Antioquia), undertaken by five teenage friends who are alone in the world in search of the promised land. The film pre-opened the LATcinema Fest, the Latin American film festival of Casa América Catalunya, on Tuesday, and arrives in Spanish theaters today.
After an autobiographical film like Matar a Jesús, what led you to write this story?
It comes very fueled by the casting of Matar a Jesús, I met some fascinating guys. As a woman, I am very intrigued by the world of men, especially in such a violent society where I feel that violence is such a male heritage. And I was very impressed that during the interviews all the boys said that their biggest wish was to have a place in the world. And on the other hand, I had the idea of making a film about land, which I feel is the focal point of the conflict in Colombia. I did the same trip that the boys do, between Medellín, northern Antioquia and Baix Cauca and I thought those roads were very cinematic. There was so much tension in that landscape and so much beauty! During that trip in 2016 I started having images of boys doing bad things and it was so strong that I stopped the cart and wrote down three sentences in my notebook: boys claiming the world; boys who take revenge on the world and we are the kings of the world. I realized that it was a film that would constantly move between a surrealist king and a more symbolic register.
Is there any news on the issue of the land conflict in Colombia?
Yes, because it is very crazy that the film coincides with the election of the first progressive government in history, which has put land restitution at the center of the discussion. It has been perhaps one of the most pressing issues in the peace process and it is like a thorny islet that no one wants to touch. And suddenly the government does. In fact, the land restitution unit office bought a private screening of the film in December for officials to see. I talked to them and they explained to me that a few years ago there was the first restitution of land to minors.
I would like to highlight that very tender sequence in which the boys dance with older sex workers in their arms. Women have a very maternal role…
I am also very moved by this sequence because it existed in a very detailed way in my imagination. For me that brothel is Colombia and as in Colombia we will see women who may be reunited with their children lost in the war. The role of women in my country has been very strong because she has been the one who has survived, while men have been the victims. The brothel is full of altered patrician symbols and we enjoyed building this universe.
In addition to the portrayal of this violence that the protagonists go through, the film contains poetic and hypnotic elements. What was his intention?
I wanted the film to defy the genre a bit. There are some characters who are being expelled from minute one and the only territory from which they could not be expelled is the oneiric, that of the imagination. It is a free, intimate place and I was interested in building these limbos between reality and delusion.
What is justice for you?
I think my work is permeated by an obsession with justice, perhaps because I have lived in a tremendously unjust country. I am the daughter of a murdered father for whom I will surely never have the answer of justice. I am worried about justice from the State and chance because the place where we are born ends up determining our existence. I see justice as a kind of utopia and that is why I am interested in investigating it in cinema. It seems to me that it surpasses human beings. And I feel that it is currently unattainable.
