‘Sants’, a unique story of thieves and precariousness, in competition at San Sebastián
San Sebastián, Spain, September 24 (EFE)
Victoria Luengo, Ariadna Gil, and Eulàlia Ramón are the pillars upon which Spanish director Mikel Gurrea has built ‘Sants,’ his second feature film, presented this Thursday in competition for the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It’s a unique tale of thieves of religious figures that also addresses precariousness, illness, and caregiving.
The film stemmed from his desire to find a fictional setting in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona where he lives, “which has a very strong community network and an anarchist element, but a very religious name.”
“I knew there was a church with that name and I wanted to visit it, but every time I went it was never open. I thought that criminals could enter a closed church, so I started reading about thefts of sacred art and discovered a whole new world,” Gurrea explained at a press conference where he was accompanied by the three actresses.
Alongside Fran Kosterlitz, the director wrote the story of Lali (Luengo), a woman in her thirties who returns to the neighborhood she left at 17 to care for her mother (Gil), who is ill with cancer. They have a strained relationship, and Lali ends up joining a gang of thieves led by Rosario (Ramón), a 21st-century Robin Hood who uses the money she earns selling figurines to care for impoverished people, who venerate her for it.
Luengo, who co-stars with Javier Bardem in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ‘El ser querido’ (The Beloved), explained that she is reversing her approach to preparing for roles.
“Before, I looked for what I lacked in the characters, and now I look for what they have in me. For Lali, I asked myself what Victoria would do if she were in a similar situation with her mother, although she’s much more brazen than I am and far less responsible,” she said.
Ariadna Gil, for her part, noted that she drew inspiration for the character of the ailing mother from a personal experience. “It’s been a way of approaching what happens to the character with great respect because it’s something very painful. The way this film tells stories of lives lived on the margins is very original,” he explained.
Gurrea closes the Spanish participation in competition at this 74th edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival, which will reveal the winners at its closing gala this Saturday.
