Tamar Novas (‘Open Body’): “The boundaries between masculine and feminine are not so clear”

Gothic horror comes to the big screen. After going through festivals such as the 67 Seminci de Valladolid or the 60 Festival de Gijón, where it won the RTPA award for best Asturian feature film, ‘Cuerpo abierto’, director Ángeles Huerta’s radical leap into fiction, hits theaters. A story set in Galicia at the beginning of the 20th century, which does Tamar Novas in a professor who arrives in a city where mysticism and reason are confused. “Actually there are certain situations that go beyond the limits, which are not clear at all”defends the Galician interpreter.

Year 1909. Miguel (Novas) is a young teacher assigned to a small mountain town on the border between Spain and Portugal.: Lobosandaus, an inhospitable village with ancient traditions. He’s a reasonable man, but he can’t control his passionate desires, and as winter approaches, he feels darkness taking over everything around him as his fascination with the enigmatic Dorinda (Victória War). In a place dominated by superstition, the strange death of a village neighbor frees a free spirit in search of a body that will allow him to continue his existencewhich will lead Miguel to question the boundaries between the world of the living and that of the dead.

After directing the documentary ‘Olvida Monelos’, Ángeles Huerta presents a completely opposite work, a genre story which, however, the filmmaker herself sees as linked to her previous feature film. “Everyone is surprised, I think my previous project had a very melancholy and reflective tone, but it was above all ecstatic cinema. This is also ‘Open Body’. Both films are very passionate and I don’t see much difference. The only thing is that the format changes, but because both require a different style. Ferrín’s story attracted me for the sensory potential it had”, declares the director in an interview with Madrid’s eCartelera.

It’s more, Huerta sees a common point in documentaries and genres such as horror and fantasy. “Terror or the fantastic are the freest genres that fiction cinema has, as it reminds me of documentary, which is also a very free format”stick up for. “The film has a vision that leaves a lot to interpretation. The important thing is that it creates a feeling of anticipation that involves. Also It is one of those productions that, upon second viewing, offers a different message than the one initially received, leaves a lot of room for different interpretations, from the most rational to the most esoteric. That’s the balance he likes.”adds Tamar Novas.

“Gothic is an exaltation of romanticism”

Both the actor and María Vázquez, who plays Obdulia, a woman who seems to be possessed by the spirit of her sister-in-law Dorinda’s former loverthey agree that this is a project that has caught their eye because of how risky and different it is within the industry itself. “Wanting to make a film whose storytelling and theme are very particular was what attracted me. Both the characters, the staging and the story seemed to me a very extreme and particular proposition”Novas says. “Although a period film, it narrates several current issues and many of them difficult. Also that she has a richness, in terms of diversity, that attracted me a lot. It is a genre production, but it is closely linked to the languages, to the place”Vazquez shares.

In this difference, it is that Huerta, who signs the screenplay of this adaptation of a story by Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín, commitment to narrate a horror story set in Galicia at the beginning of the 20th centurycombining tradition, folklore and mystery, recalling the gothic terror. “In the story of Ferrín has that romantic approach, which is in the gothic, which is an exaltation of romanticism, speaks of passions that go beyond death, with an esoteric and erotic component. Even aesthetically I found that world very attractive. On the other hand, it allowed us to talk about contemporary issues, such as the vagueness of borders, those illusory limits that build our identities, but which on many occasions are more in our heads than in reality”exhibits.

“The boundaries between masculine and feminine are not so clear”adds Novas, referring to the character played by María Vázquez, a woman possessed by a man’s soul. “I loved Obdulia, it seemed like a challenge to me, also because it escapes the cliché, precisely because the film goes beyond the boundary between the masculine and the feminine”adds the actress.

That blurring of borders, the most explicit is related to the language, as it is a project that combines Spanish, Portuguese and Galician. “A border is one where people speak different languages ​​and use them to communicate and not throw them into their heads. Ultimately, the question of language, in the film, is the first layer of that vagueness, because it’s not clear where Portugal begins and Spain ends, it’s fascinating. After that first layer, we go to what separates the masculine and feminine, and finally, the line that marks the difference between the living and the dead.”Huerta explains. “This is very cool in terms of showing the coexistence of languages, especially right now when everything is very polarised. Society is far more advanced than politics, our country is far more diverse than what is being sold to usyou live much better than you think”Vazquez agrees.

A film that evokes Henry James and Bram Stoker

In that gothic inspiration, in ‘Open Body’ there are similarities to stories like ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving or ‘Another Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James. In fact, the director herself explains that Ferrín was inspired by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” for her story. “Yes, a lot of people have told me about ‘Sleepy Hollow’, even Henry James’ ‘Another Turn of the Screw’. The professor arrives in the stagecoach also reading ‘Portrait of a Lady’. It was a nod we wanted to put in. Ferrín himself commented that, when writing the story, he had in mind “Dracula”, by Bram Stoker. That’s right with the protagonist who arrives on a stagecoach to an inhospitable destination, a character who comes from a civilized world who enters a world that seems anchored in a place out of time”To explain.

“In this case, we take it to a region between borders, with a timeless gaze, unaware of spatial determinationseven to such transcendental determinations as the line that separates the living from the dead, entering a sort of limbo, which also serves to show that point where there are many realities”Keep it up.

That spiral towards obscurantism experienced by the protagonist professor, It also reveals how the enlightened man, the one who represents reason, is a prisoner of his own disbeliefwanting to find a logical explanation for scenarios that elude him. “The teacher is supposed to represent progress, which is enlightened, it happens even today. I’m more wary of those who have a speech that agrees with mine, but their forms, their character and their behavior are more rigid. It can cause me more rejection even in front of someone with an opposite or less elaborate speech, but who is flexible and it shows in their actions. The dogmatic is dangerous. There is a kind of fundamentalism of reason”shares the actor. “We need to leave room for mystery, not everything can have a reason. Those who believe that everything can be explained fail to see that life goes much further”Vazquez adds.

‘Cuerpo abierto’ also touches on a current theme, the visibility of mental illness, also representing how, historically, this issue has been used in a misogynistic way. “The history of psychiatry is tremendous, especially with women. Freud’s writings are tremendous. Ultimately, there was a very important form of social control there, with those locked up women which, by the way, are a recurring theme.” in Victorian literature written by women”says Huerta.

“Needless to say, it’s the best year for Spanish cinema if audiences don’t go to theaters”

In a gothic perspective far from the usual canons, Ángeles Huerta follows in the footsteps of other female filmmakers whose presence has become more notable in the Spanish industry in recent years. “In recent works, I have had to work with new directors, many of them women. I don’t know if it is due to the fact that they are of a new generation or because they are women, but they have another way of conceiving cinema, more cooperative and less hierarchical “defends Tamar Novas. “I think this new generation sees cinema differently and is causing a change, the project is seen transversally and this is wonderful. Ultimately, a film is produced by an entire team. It is very important that there is harmony and that people can express their opinion”adds María Vázquez.

“Certain things respond to a particular vision. In this case, it is mine modulated by a team which, each one, from their own place, shapes a vision which, although I direct it, ends up belonging to everyone”argues Huerta, who emphasizes it the timelessness of the great works is what allows for the existence of modern reinterpretationsmany of them in a feminine key. “I adapt a writing published in the early 1990s, by a man who is now over 80. It is common that, if this story is adapted in 2022 and, moreover, is directed by a woman, other things seem like, on the other hand, there were potential: that’s what great works have, that they have potentially present elements and have wonderful rereads many years later and which, in the light of time, have different values”details.

From an independent perspective, Huerta wants her story to captivate the viewerwhich is what has the power to keep the industry moving, especially in such a delicate moment for the box office and theater attendance, both in Spain and internationally. “I think that growing any independent film, in itself, is a titanic mission and to be able to make it happen is a miracle and that it can be seen in theaters is a gift. In the end, the important thing is that people go to the films. We fill our mouths that we are experiencing the best year of Spanish cinema, but this is useless if we don’t have an audience to see us. If viewers don’t go to theaters, it dies”concludes.

‘Open Body’ is directed by Ángeles Huerta, who writes the screenplay together with Daniel García. With Tamar Novas, Victoria Guerra, María Vázquez, Federico Pérez, Elena Seijo, Miquel Insúa, José Fidalgo and Nicolás Otero. With music by Mercedes Peón and photography by Gina Ferrer. Produced by Gaspar Broullón and Daniel D. García. Co-production between Spain and Portugal, a production by OlloVivo Produccións, Fasten Films and Cinemate, in collaboration with Xunta de Galicia, Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais, RTVE, Televisión de Galicia (TVG) and ICAA. Available in cinemas from this December 9, by the hand of Filmax.