Lucía Aleñar’s first film, which she has made with the island production company La Perifèrica and Distinto Films.
Antonia travels to Mallorca to spend the summer with her godfather. Upon arrival, she is captivated by the similarities between herself and her godmother, now dead. The young woman moves in the spaces she inhabited, among the objects she touched. He can’t resist and tries on a dress from her. What he doesn’t expect is that his godfather sees her as his own wife, and from there it is uncertain who is living with whom. This is the story of Forastera, a short film by Lucia Aleñar that has been selected in Cannes Critics’ Week. It is produced by Distinto Films and the Mallorcan La Perifèrica Produccions.
‘Forastera’: a word widely used in Mallorca that Aleñar chooses not only to indicate that the protagonist is from outside the island, but also because “she feels like a stranger to teenagers her age, to her parents, to her own body “. “The only identity she feels is that of her godmother,” adds the director from Madrid, whose father’s family is Mallorcan.
The seed of this story is a personal experience: the resemblance to his own godmother. “Many relatives told me how similar we were, it was a very rare feeling. And from here this fictitious story is born”, he points out. Even so, Aleñar assures that the film is not based on autobiographical experiences.
Nostalgia and identity
She describes the film as “a meditation on nostalgia”, a feeling that comes over him when he lands on the island and goes to the family home. “Every time I come to Mallorca, I feel this wave of nostalgia. I feel that this is my second home, that I belong here and that it is part of who I am. And I have put all these feelings into the character of Antonia,” she says. On the other hand, the short film explores intergenerational relationships and the complexity of identity: “How can we inherit identities that exist in previous generations”, reflects the director.
Forastera is Aleñar’s first short film, starring Zoe Stein and Miquel Gelabert, which he recorded last October in Pollença Bay. Thanks to the Critics’ Week label, the film can be seen on the Festival Scope platform from this October. It will also be part of the Outside Wall and will be screened in cities such as Paris, New York and Prague. In addition, the filmmaker is invited to participate in the Next Step Project Laboratory in December, where she will begin developing her first feature film.
- Ara Balears – Elena Navarro – 04/06/20
