Icíar Bollaín: “I make the films I see after the news”

The day we met, a few weeks ago, although we later finished the conversation by phone last Thursday, the sun was infernally shining in Madrid, but the basement of the humble block of low-rise buildings in the Carabanchel neighborhood where Icíar Bollaín supervised the sound system of I am Nevenka It looked like a fridge. It is clear that the director, who at that time looked very tanned, relaxed and happy, copes better with the cold than the heat. Living in Scotland for 12 years with her partner, the filmmaker Paul Laverty, and their three children, she was on holiday on a beach in Alicante and for her, going up to the capital to finish her work was, more than a nuisance, a party. Before going to the appointment, to get into the nitty-gritty, I had seen what I thought was the finished film on a digital link provided by the production company. So, a novice in the trade, I began by asking about the first thing that shocked her when she found out that the cake was still in the oven.

So what I saw is not the movie, movie?

You’ve seen the brute. You just need to add the music, the noises, the atmosphere. Sound is half the image. And sometimes a sound is worth a thousand images because, when you hear them, you see things, even if they don’t appear on screen. You see the children playing in the street, you see the murmurs in the Town Hall, you see the ominous silence in the procession, you see the atmosphere of the town, and, in this film, the atmosphere is fundamental, because it tells a choral story. That of Nevenka and that of the ecosystem of the environment and the time: the spider web of the society that saw the ordeal of its harassment by Ismael Álvarez and neither said nor did anything about it.

So these days he is enriching his stew, like in the ad.

Exactly. This is a joyful phase, because it is about enriching what you have filmed and edited. During filming, you go shopping, choose and prepare the raw materials. During editing, you cook those ingredients, you mix them. There may be some frustration because you have missed something or you have made the wrong food, but you can no longer regret it. In this last phase, let’s say you season and plate the stew so that the diner can enjoy it.

Have you seen and tasted the dish yet? Nevenka Fernandezthe protagonist of the story?

She saw it yesterday. She was very emotional. She was shocked and very happy. We counted on her, she knew the script and she came to the shoot, but, in the end, what we tell is her life and she was afraid to see it on screen. There were scenes where she covered her eyes. But I think she came out happy. She came with her psychologist and her lawyer, who also appear in the film, and they spent hours talking. It was beautiful.

And the harassing mayor, Ismael Alvarez?

No. We thought about involving him, but he still denies the facts that have been definitively established. So, what’s the point?

I think they didn’t let them film in the City Hall. Ponferrada.

They didn’t even reply to our request. There was administrative silence from the municipal government of the Popular Party, which was Álvarez’s when he was mayor. Obviously, they didn’t want the matter to be brought up again. But, in addition, something curious happened: not even those others who did help us were happy that we made the film. There may be an understandable desire to not want to see Ponferrada in the negative news again. But I don’t agree. Nevenka is also from Ponferrada, and look at what a capable, brave and courageous woman she is. Ponferrada is also her.

Did you follow the case at the time?

The truth is, no. And that’s mind-blowing. I wasn’t a child anymore, I was 37 years old, but I didn’t feel concerned. It was like all this had nothing to do with us. That also speaks to how the matter was treated from an informational point of view. That’s why I included images from the newscasts of the time in the film. In general, Nevenka Álvarez was not supported, either inside or outside her town; on the contrary, she was even accused of being a liar and a social climber. She was left very alone. She was a young woman who dared to denounce a powerful man against all odds and in a very small society. Going off the rails in Ponferrada at that time was like making a big mess. That’s all I wanted to tell.

You are an actress. How did you choose the actors who play Nevenka Fernández and Ismael Álvarez? In the film, you are transformed into them.

I choose actors who move me and who I believe in. I cried a lot during the audition with Mireia Oriol, who plays Nevenka. Her face was a recital. Her eyes went from looking like those of a frightened fawn to the absolute determination to carry on in the same frame. I had already worked with Urko Olazábal, who plays Ismael, in my film. MaixabelThere he played a murderer and you believed him. Here he plays a stalker mayor, yes, but also charming and seductive, and I had to believe it. There is a brutal chemistry between them. And, yes, they move me and I believe them.

What sources did he draw from to nail down the jargon and intricacies of municipal politics?

We spoke with local journalists and, to recreate the mayor’s speech, I also relied heavily on videos of Jesús Gil [que fue alcalde de Marbella]. Álvarez, like Gil, was a mayor who, apart from all the asides, did things for the town and was highly appreciated by many residents. That “I didn’t come here to suck from the bottle”, that “talk to So-and-so about your business”, that splendour and that friendliness: I got all that populism from there.

Your films often deal with real facts or social trends. Are you not motivated by pure fiction?

I like both, but when it comes to telling stories, I find what is in reality much richer than what I can invent. It is clear that I create that reality, I recreate it, I do not make documentaries. I make the films that I see, or think I see, after watching the news. I am interested in relationships, contradictions, and the conflicts of people in transit. I try to be sober and avoid sensationalism, sentimentality and melodrama. I have a kind of internal thermostat to keep me away from them. That is what black, yellow and pink chronicles are for.

What news inspires you enough to get into the years-long mess that is a movie?

Those that, however dark they may be, have or can be gleaned from some light. First I ask myself if I will be able to make the film, if I see myself making it, and then, if I can contribute something by telling it. If I am Nevenka makes guys think, not guys Ishmaels of life, who deny that sexual harassment even exists, but to those who may have doubts about what is and is not tolerable; and to the women who may feel in that situation, I am satisfied. I aspire to contribute something to the public conversation. I think that, in the end, that is what culture is.

Could some light be shed on the Mocejón crimein which a 20-year-old boy kills a 10-year-old boy playing football in his town?

With all due respect, I think so. The light of the attitude with which that devastated family and their spokesperson asked that no social group be criminalised. And it could also try to shed light on how mental illness and intellectual disability are addressed in Spain.

At 57 years old, what stage of your life are you in?

Well, I’m starting to be a person without the shackles of children around my ankles, and that’s amazing. I can improvise, do things without thinking about the logistics of what’s in the fridge. Suddenly, you find that your children are three older guys with whom you can exchange things, and it’s wonderful. And I also have more time for myself and my partner. The other day we went on a trip just the two of us and I couldn’t believe it.

Sometimes, these reunions of couples after freeing themselves from the shackles of their children are almost between two strangers.

[Ríe] Well, we live and work together. We’ve had three children, we’ve raised three children and three films together, and we’re preparing a fourth. So, we’re very close and, for better or worse, nothing surprises me anymore. I know that stuff well.

Being a very redhead and living abroad for 12 years, do you feel like tourist in Spain?

I’m starting to feel myself. Sometimes I find myself with my feet out of place in both places. In Scotland there is a very politeto ask for please and thank you for everything, and if you don’t do it, you’re a boor. I used to make a lot of mistakes. But now it’s stuck and I make the opposite mistake here. I ask for please and thank you for everything, for being driven, for being given the salt, for being thanked: then, people look at me strangely, as if to say: what a pain in the ass.

You have been behind the cameras for almost 30 years. Do you consider yourself a senior?

Well, it happens to me all the time. I watch movies two hundred times before they are released, and I end up so saturated that I don’t watch them again. But the other day I watched them again. Flowers from another worldbecause I went to a conference in the United States and it turns out that they show it a lot in universities there, and I said to myself: well, girl, it’s not that bad. Although there are always those who say that, since the protagonist is a Cuban immigrant who arrives in a town in Guadalajara and the old men look at her with desire, it is a colonial, sexualizing and sexist view of a white woman on Latin immigration. I even thought about it, whether it was like that or not, but, look, girl, I shot that film 25 years ago, and that was the reality. We were talking about the kitchen simile earlier. Let’s say that I cook films and that, after 30 years of cooking and tasting dishes, I have a knack.

Not to be outdone, here’s my sexist question: what are you going to wear to the red carpet in San Sebastian?

I get a headache every time I have to think about these things, but, taking advantage of the filming of the movie, I bought a dress on sale in a shop in Bilbao, which is so stylish, and you don’t know if it’s winter or summer or from this season or seven years ago, and I think I’m going to wear it. Also, I’m going with Mireia, the actress from I am Nevenkawho is a goddess, and I assume that all the spotlights are going to be on her. I throw in the towel.