The Venezuelan filmmaker Patricia Ortega compete in the film festivals of sun dance with ‘mamacruz’a film with the Spaniard Kiti Mánver, which deals with the sexuality of older people and with which the director explains that she “avenged” her grandmother (With the film) I avenged my grandmother (…) That is the orgasm my grandmother didn’t haveOrtega said in an interview about the film, which competes in the Best International Film category.
Exactly the story her grandmother told her how she lived it sexuality It shook her deeply. “A few months before he died, he told me, ‘I didn’t know sensuality, your grandfather would turn me on, make me a son and that’s it,'” he recalled. This made the filmmaker realize that this woman had sacrificed “her body, her life, her longing and her right to be happy” to serve a family and sowed the seed of Mamacruz.
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A nude photo enhanced everything
But it was Ortega’s mother who sparked the idea the day the filmmaker found a photo of her mother posing fully. naked. “My mom is super conventional so when you find a nude photo of your mom you ask, well what happened here?” he mentioned.
Knowing the version of the woman behind “Mama’s Mask” led her to write the screenplay of a lady starting at the age of three explore their sexuality accompanied by a group of diverse friends willing to do so break the paradigms and moral norms of the feminine.
Kiti Mánver during the shooting of the film. The protagonist acted in Woman on the Brink of a Nervous Breakdown.
“It’s a bit the theme of my life, I come from a very orthodox country that despite everything it’s been through is still very conventional and very binary. I feel non-binary, I’ve never managed to live as a woman, and while clashing with that definition, I like to work from the body,” he explained.
My mom is super conventional so when you find a nude pic of her mom you say well what happened here?
The conservative environment in which the director grew up has led her to a city in Seville where the film is set, where religion continues to play an important role in the community.
However, Ortega attempted to portray the acquisition of beliefs more freely, mixing eroticism with religion, marking a fine line between devotion and desire that Mamacruz lives through throughout the film.
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The challenge of finding the protagonist
The director had high expectations of her leading role, because I was looking for a woman over 60 years old that “she did not have the weight of age”, both in manner and build, that she was “impish and daring” in her daily life, but that she could also be “sweet and delicate”.
Another important point was that the actress in question had to be willing to do nude scenes. Ortega went to the producer of the film Elm Figueredo and he, who had worked with Mánver on El inconvenience, did not hesitate to propose the actress who starred in Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (1988).
The idea of having to show “the embarrassment” in the cinema initially deterred the protagonist, but the possibility of bringing up the subject of sexuality in old age caused her to put it aside modesty.
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I think this discussion isn’t about gender, it’s about the issue of accepting our bodies.
“You do your mind control and move on. There was a lot to be said about this desire, which is absolutely legal and absolutely necessary. It was important to say that sex and eroticism are timeless,” said Kiti Mánver.
Another big challenge for the 69 year old actress was to limit her movements when acting, because unlike her, Mamacruz seems stealthy, thoughtful and taciturn.
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“I have an excess of physical expression and Mamacruz is different. She just looks and lets herself be guided by what she sees and what seduces her and not being able to express much with her hands, she didn’t want to succumb to that, in the end nothing of nothing,” he said.
Although the story focuses on the female experience, Ortega believes the film can do the same connect with men and people of different ages. “I think this discussion isn’t about gender, it’s about the issue of accepting our bodies,” he concluded.
EFE