Within its exposed brick facade, the smell of the arepas is mixed with that of the chorizo and that of the tacos. Flags of different colors adorn the premises and more than a dozen accents, who share the same language, travel the halls. A güey is greet to be greet on the parcero. And everyone seems to feel at home. The Maravillas market, with more than 80 years of life, and that in the latter has depended on the Latin American community to survive, is the epitome of the city that lives: Madrid. The so folk daily life of their corridors is broken by a “care! Its presence, although striking, is as well received as that of the rest of the people who travel in the largest market in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. It is the place chosen for the filming of Ash in the mouththe new film led by Mexican Diego Luna, based on the homonym book of his compatriot Brenda Navarro and who has started his way in Madrid last week, before passing through Barcelona and Mexico City. A Mexico-Spanish production that addresses the difficulties of Latin migrants in Spain.
“We wanted to start here because it is an important space for any Latin American that has stepped on Madrid,” says Luna. The helmets that he wears in the neck attests to his role in the filming. He returns to La Silla, nine years later, to direct his fifth film – the fourth fiction – and after a long stage of “long breath projects.” “I really wanted to make movies for a while. To tell a story that takes place in two hours, with a strong beginning and end, ”he continues. His hunger has satiated her thanks to the history of Navarro, published in 2022 and with which she won the Best Fiction Book of Los Libreros in Madrid. A novel that addresses the arrival of two Mexican brothers to Spain to meet with their mother, Isabel, who had emigrated eight years ago in search of, like so many others, of a better future. Through the sister’s point of view, the Mexican writer tells the sacrificial trajectory, of inequality, racism and helplessness that many Latin migrants travel in Spanish lands. “A wonderful book with identity and No place As a central theme, ”defends the director of the film, in which he has found, although he prefers not to embark on the details -” when we finish the project, We throw A coffee and I tell you what experiences they took me to tell it, ”he says – a nearby story where to” reflect on distance, absence “and” fatherhood. “
To tell it, it has decided to put a particular emphasis on the relationship of the mother and daughter: “I am in a moment in my life that it is impossible for me not to focus on the relationship between them.” But beyond that, he prefers not to anticipate anything. “It’s very early to say what the movie is going to deal with. We are discovering the story and until the end we do not know what the thing will end. We start from an idea, but the most beautiful thing is what the accident brings, what happens in the process that is already the root of collaboration between so many people. ” A collaboration that began with Abia Castillo and Diego Rabasa, coguionistas with Luna and that have joined for the difficult task of transcribing the story of the pages to the screen, although without faithfully reflect the book. “It is very ambitious to think that a book fits in the two hours of a movie,” defends the director. Rabasa confirms this: “It is a new story, with a completely different language. The intention and focus are very different from those of the novel. There is an emphasis on the identity, abandonment and struggle of the protagonist to open a space in the world. ”
Brenda Navarro, the idea that his compatriot’s film took his own course, far from bothering her, pleases him. “This will be the story of Diego Luna at the end. It happens to me with the translations of my books, it does not end to be the same story, there is an interpretation of the translator and different words, ”he defends. When they told him about the project, his first reaction was to think: “What a mess to get into.” “It is a complex novel with many issues and that generates an interesting audiovisual challenge,” he says. And for the Luna project, he has delivered it without limitations: “A writing to get the demons inside, and see that the story connects with other people is the best gift. This work of so many hands, the look of so many eyes, the work that is extended and has more paths, is a magical process. ”
From the loneliness of his writing, his novel has gone to the hands of about thirty people and the faces of two actresses of flesh and blood – ”ah, with which those were his face. Now I find out, ”jokes the author – Anna Díaz – as Lucila, the protagonist – and Adriana Paz – like her mother, Isabel – who now rehearse, in one of the wonders, the first of the scenes to roll. While the electric ones, already mounted on the ladder, place a light on top, Luna talks with them, smiles, responds doubts and exemplifies the movements with your body. “I really like directing actors and actresses, helping them in their process and finding answers together. I love the idea of emulating those processes that as an actor marked me, ”says the experienced interpreter. What do directors like Alfonso Cuarón, Steven Spielberg, Gus van Sant or Gareth Edwars with him now. “One of the benefits of my profession is that I can see the work of the creators closely. I started acting at age 12 and I have always been very curious and I have been interested in the process of who is telling the story. Luckily, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of directors who have enriched me a lot, ”says Luna.
He lives from the interpretation and reserves his excursions as a director for when he feels “really ready.” “For me, he is born from a personal experience, when I do it is directly related to revelation. And the movies I have made are related to something deeply important in my life. ” With them it has been presented at Film Festivals such as Cannes, Sunday, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastián or Morelia.
The essay ends soon because the time in the filming is pressing. The scene that happens when Luna finally shouts “Action!” “They are listened to in the almost 9,000 square meters of the place,” it could well be a daily moment of the Madrid market. One of those stories that the cinema magnifying glass enhances with a power that few tools have. “It has been a coincidence, but it is a very important moment to talk about migration and the relationship between Spain and Latin America,” says the Mexican. The same thinks Navarro, who would like the new dimension of his text to serve for the Spaniards to “be proud to have Latinos as citizens.” And although everyone seems to agree that the story is not quite the same and the film, as a living entity that is, will forge its path over time, the essence seems to be unaltered. “Madrid that I love has to do with us living there,” says the writer. And that reality, that of a culture permeated by the Latin community, finds shelter early in a film at the doors of a still very long road to its premiere.