Incendiary Spanish director Isabel Coixet (The Secret Life of Words) heads to San Sebastian for the international premiere of her latest drama Un Amor,a take on devouring love starring Laia Costa (Lullaby) and Hovik Keuchkerian (Money Heist) that sets Coixet up to compete on the festivals main stage for the first time.
Un Amor is produced by Buenapinta Medias Marisa Fernndez Armenteros (The Mole Agent) alongside Society of the Snow producers Sandra Hermida and Beln Atienza, here producing out of Perdicin Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (Return to Reason).
The film is based on its namesake novel by Sara Mesa, branded Spains 2020 book of the year by Spanish newspaper El Pas. The script was written by Coixet and Laura Ferrero (Empty Pools).
Tormented by occupational hazards and the hustle of city living, protagonist Nat ventures to the countryside town of La Escapa to start fresh. Unpartnered and saddled with a wayward dog, she stands fiercely in her solitude, existing just outside societal bounds while quietly infuriating the residents of her increasingly inhospitable new home.
Longing for more than surface-level niceties, she evolves and devolves in tandemafter a bewildering proposal from the brusque and towering Andreas unravels into an unfettered obsession that holds her captive as she clumsily attempts to collect her pride.
Her tragedy isnt being an outsider. Her tragedy is that, in a way, she wants to belong a little bit, Coixet toldVariety.
The director admits an affinity for Nat, a character that Mesa says was named the most hated protagonist in contemporary Spanish literature on account of her motives, the irrational nature of her actions. Upon a second perusal of the text the story coaxed Coixet into an adaptation.
I have this absolute identification with Nat. In a way, it was so difficult to do justice to this character, and at the same time, easy, because Ive been there. I behaved like that, I felt all these things. Ive felt this contradiction.
Though harnessing an innate power, Nat comes to find country living isnt the peaceful endeavor shed imagined and at every turn shes faced with the disingenuous nature of a society not trusting of a woman striking out on her own.
We suffer micro aggressions in our daily lives as women. When we go to a new place, the first question someone asks is, are you going to live here alone? This was your first night here, you werent afraid? Why, as a woman, do we have to justify ourselves about every single thing going on in our lives? Coixet asked.
I wanted to portray that. I also wanted to show what happened with people, lets say, with normal lives. The woman who has two kids and implies youre not as good as her because you dont have kids, you dont have a partner or your house is crumbling or dirty, or you have a dog and the dog looks strange. Yet, all of those set standards she represents have made the life of women miserable, she added.
Coixet film alum Costa runs with the ambitious character study, from her strident independence through the films obsessive bent and on toward an absolving and defiant culmination.
I love Laia, we had a blast shooting my series, Foodie Love. Weve become friends, were very open with each other, Coixet relayed. Sometimes you get lazy as a director, because Im sure there are a bunch of actresses who could play Nat, but Laias going to shine because shes extraordinary. Ive said I have a deep connection with Nat, but Laia is so opposite to that character yet she really understood her, became her.
Costa and Hovik were stripped down for their roles. Incredibly vulnerable and raw, each sex scene worked to advance the narrative. Not over stylized but stumbling, wanton, brutal. Something Coixet credits to wide-open communication and a keen eye for the mood on set. She recalled the influence of the first cinematic sex scene she saw that felt real, which focused on the passion-flecked face of Meryl Streeps title character in Sophies Choice.
Isabel Coixet Credit: Zoe Sala Coixet People must talk and rehearse, a director must be present and create an atmosphere of trust, thats what we did. Its the duty of the director, a very important part of your job, to be there for them, notice if theyre not telling you something, guide them. Because, thats what you are asking of them, to be present in that scene, in that moment, she opined.
I dont want to say it was easy, nothing is easy. But Ive shot many scenes like this in my life, and I have to say that if I had to shoot a guy flying, destroying a city, I would probably have more problems than shooting a sex scene. I dont like the idea of choreography because sex is clumsy, its dirty. Sometimes you dont know exactly what youre going to do and we have to play with that too, Coixet added.
The representation of sex in our movie was key because what makes this something unique from other stories about sexual obsession is how this story begins, how the sex specifically acts as a token in a capitalistic system, she continued.
Un Amor is an alluring anti-romance at every turn, full of brutal honesty and ill intent veiled in painted-on grins and unsolicited advice. A womansbody plays currency on offer for trade, barter and payment in full as even the most self-sufficient among us require connection and assistance at a certain juncture.
The narrativeturns on the mystifying act of human relation and all thats said and left unsaid of our truths and furtive desires and proves a twisted rumination on love, belonging and the minds fragility as it settles the self-kept score of our cumbersome transgressions.
All this about being very comfortable in your skin and accepting yourself, what is this? I dont accept myself. Im not good in my skin, Im not comfortable. Maybe the day Im comfortable in my skin, Ill die. Id rather be uncomfortable, mused Coixet.
One of the things about films? They dont have to be comfortable. They dont have to be sweet. They have to challenge you. If theres no challenge, theres also no confrontation. In one of my films, one of the characters said, Understanding everything makes the mind lazy and I think thats the truth.