Luisa Cantero (Mérida, 1924) has become almost as famous as the person who idolizes her, the actor Miguel Ángel Muñoz (Madrid, 1983). It makes sense, the interpreter’s great-grandmother’s sister is the protagonist of ‘100 days with the tata’, the debut of the Madrilenian, a documentary that began as a memory in the format of a home movie that has grown and, with the outbreak of the pandemic, ended up becoming a piece about care, mental health and the harsh confinement that a Forqué has already won.
– Hey, are you determined to become the favorite son-in-law of all Spain?
– (laughs). What’s up, what’s up, really. It is something that is said a lot, but no, I have a thousand defects that will be known and others that are not known. I don’t even know what to tell you.
-Tell me a few.
-Look, in the film I show myself as I am and I would not want a guy like that in many aspects of my life, with my hyperactivity, with the need not to stop all the time, that when I have half an hour free I start studying, to give a class in I don’t know what, or to train for the next marathon, or to think about becoming a parachutist and get it… It’s a pain in the ass. I say it in the movie: «I’m not staying one Sunday as a movie and blanket at my house» . Who wants such a person?
–It is his first film and he has already received his first award: the Forqué for the best documentary. How did you fall?
“I get goose bumps.” Everything that is happening is being exceptional, because this film was not born with this motivation. I had the need to shoot this story for many years, to have it for myself and my father. Eleven years ago it came to my mind that it was not going to be eternal and I wanted to spend the highest quality time with her and have the best memory and, due to professional deformation, I wanted to have it in film form and I saved money and formed a professional team and we roll. When I saw it I thought it was worth the public to see it.
– So your intention was never to show it in theaters.
– Many people are surprised because they think that the film is about the father and the confinement, but it is not only that. Obviously that is why it is called ‘100 days with my father’, because, within the structure of the script, those hundred days that we spent together locked up have helped me to tell a lot about things. I did have the concern for a long time to get behind the camera and I knew that when I directed something there had to be cinema within cinema, I would want to talk about therapy … All that is in the film, but I did not know what this was going to be . I thought it would serve as an exercise for me when I made my first film as a director and it has become this first step, full of joys, not only because of the award, but because what I wanted was to live this with my father, what I’m doing. This is the most important.
–It is a very personal film, weren’t you afraid of exposing yourself so much?
– I have not considered it. It was clear to me that we really had to show ourselves. I am very shy about many of the things I teach and, for example, those moments of real therapy. I have always believed that I had to be 100% honest with the story and with what happened to us and there it is. I am embarrassed, but I think it is necessary to understand the story and also to understand what I wanted to express through the film.
– His plan was to go to Mérida with his father and just after the trip the pandemic broke out. Did he have more experiences in store for her?
-No. I wanted to go to Mérida and going to Mérida at the age of 95 is sleeping outside, experiencing a lot of emotions that I had not experienced for 50 years. Being in the cemetery where her mother was … I wanted to know where she lived, her roots, to know her … I have done many things during filming, but above all I have been doing things with her all my life. He has seen all my plays, he has gone to almost all my concerts, to the series where I have worked, he has even participated in them. Perhaps the most important thing has been that coexistence that we have done 24 hours together, without being able to do anything extraordinary, simply taking care of her and she to me, sharing life.
-What went through your head with the start of the pandemic?
-I knew that if things got complicated, that was what I was going to do, because there is no other person as close and with as much love as me towards my father, but I was not aware of what it was going to mean, because no one was aware that we were going to be locked up for so long. It surpassed us all and me too. I did not think that the day I went to stay only during the day, I was going to stay overnight. I thought it was going to be two weeks and it became a hundred days. I was not prepared, but it has been wonderful. All the events were coming, they were happening and he was managing them as he could. And since on the other hand I had the need for her to be the best possible, she did not question anything and I had to act and make everything the best that I could.
A still from the documentary.
– What was the hardest?
– The hardest thing has been to separate us. But the documentary also shows the need for one to be well in order to take care of the other person. I deteriorated a lot during the pandemic and ended up with a diagnosis of two cervical disc hernias that have been killing me for a year and a half and that was tremendous I ended up with two cervical disc hernias that have been killing me for a year and a half And that was tremendous, but more tremendous has been knowing that together we are both tremendously happy. But we cannot be as long as we would like.
– The most surprising thing is to see how she regains her vitality as the documentary progresses. Were you aware of how important it is for seniors to be active?
Yes, I have been very conscientious for her. I am a positive input of activity in your life and I have been feeling it for many years. She has been struggling with life and through life for a long time. It has already been written off for fifteen, that it might not be here, and has verbalized it many times. But I did realize when editing the film, that it is even more important. When you pay attention to them, you give them affection, love, the elderly are like plants, they flourish at whatever age they are and you never have to throw in the towel.
– Why do you think society corners the elderly?
– I think that life takes us at a very different speed than that needed by older people and we don’t realize it. Many times you realize when they are gone. That is why one of my goals is that when people finish watching the film and leave the cinema they have a feeling of wanting to spend quality time with the people they love, old and young, but with the older ones even more. because by statistical probability it is possible that they have less time to share.
-I spoke before the physical consequences. Has the experience left you any emotional consequences or has it been totally healing?
-Both. There is an emotional sequel to separating from my father who is healing and that is why I have decided to show the therapy sessions that I do and it is very good for me to remind myself and see it in the film because the emotional attachment is very strong and to be able to get out of there I have myself I have to really give an account of what I have suffered and what is also important to me, but it costs me a lot and I have been working a lot on it.
–Your film also comes at a time when mental health, care, are in vogue. Do you think it can help to stimulate debate and discussion?
– Hopefully it helps to raise awareness. I do not write down the many of all the deep themes that are touched in the film because many have arisen in a fortuitous way. However, talking about therapy was something that I had very clear for many years that I wanted to do when directing a film and that is why it is exhibited there. I think it is important to talk about this, normalize it, take care of yourself. We live in a society that invites us to take great care of ourselves on the outside and we must invite people to take care of themselves inside and the soul.
–There is also a point of poetic justice because these are the people who have cared for others.
-Well, in this case there is, but I also emphasize a lot that it is very important to take the example of our father because many times we feel we have the right that they have to take care of us and I believe that what one sows is what in the end reaps .
– Do you see yourself behind the scenes in another project?
“Without a doubt.” I have something in mind and I would love to continue exploring this new professional path, because I dedicate myself to this and I am very excited to do projects that entertain and at the same time raise awareness. And in this case, at the creator level, I am very proud to be able to show something that goes beyond entertainment and has to do with something social. Hopefully the next ones I do go there too. Directing I liked as much as being in front of the camera.
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