20/02/2024 - BERLINALE 2024: The Argentinian director talks about her fearless film that uses the musical genre to tell stories of violence and oppression, but also of hope and rebellion

(© Cherie Birkner)

We spoke to Argentinian director Lola Arias, who presented her new film Reas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lola Arias
film profile] at the 74th Berlinale Forum. Reas is a musical documentary that gives voice to female detainees who, locked within the walls of a prison, try to create a utopian world made of love, respect and solidarity.

Cineuropa: How did the idea for the film come about and how did you find the protagonists?
Lola Arias: The idea started during visits to prisons where I was doing theatre and film workshops. I realised that artistic expression could be a vehicle for empowerment and expression for people in violent and oppressive situations. Music, which is very present in prisons, is the only form of expression that the detainees have. It is a very important liberation tool. I was initially planning to shoot the film while the protagonists were in prison, but a lot has changed over these five years. I was not able to continue with the workshops due to the pandemic and many of the people I had met were coming out of prison. That's why I decided to shoot the film in an old prison, like a reconstruction of what already happened.

The film questions and deconstructs the term "woman" from a queer point of view. What can you tell us about this?
It is very important to question how certain identities are recognised or not recognised in the penitentiary institution. Trans people suffered a lot of violence and the recognition of this identity was a big step, although not all prisons in the country have a trans section like the one in Ezeiza. These queer identities can only exist within women's prisons because they are places of protection, uniting, in solidarity, cis women, trans women and trans men, a community based on values of love, respect and understanding. It is a community that works in a utopian manner without being "controlled" by patriarchy, as if it were in a utopian world with no cis men. I was interested in showing how powerful this transfeminist community can be.

Although the stories told are often harsh and violent, your film is bound in an incredible tenderness, solidarity and resistance...
It was clear from the beginning that the film could not re-stigmatise the people it depicted by reproducing the spectacle of violence. Rather, it had to produce other images, to open up future possibilities, to create hope. I think the film conveys the love and solidarity there was in the film crew, in front of and behind the camera. It was magical to be able to create a space for people to express themselves, to feel powerful through dancing and singing.

Reas made me think of films like Hedwig and The Angry Inch, but also of Almodóvar's early punk films. What does the musical represent for you and what are your influences?
While I was thinking about the script, Almodóvar was a big influence because there is something melodramatic in my film. Although many musicals are completely heteronormative, like Grease and West Side Story, I think there’s a place within musicals and melodramas for the queer. Reas draws on all these elements. Usually, the protagonists of scenes such as the fight scene while the protagonists were playing football are boys in gangs. However, here that’s not the case and they do it with humour, enjoying themselves. For me, the film is a mixture of artificiality, due to the reconstruction and the musical genre, and authenticity, because the protagonists play themselves. This is seen in their bodies and how they speak.

How does your long experience in theatre influence your filmmaking?
My experience as an artist is basically theatrical. So far, I have done more than twenty plays and only two films. My films obviously have something contrived, very deliberate and very frontal in their production. I think it's a style that I took on as a part of my identity. Instead of trying to hide it, I preferred to enjoy it and make this artifice, which is my way of seeing the scenes, into a cinematographic language.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)