04/11/2025 - The Spanish filmmaker explains how he tackled the adaptation of Marcelo Luján's novel, his family secrets, mobile phones and even a psychopath in a wheelchair

(© Photogenic/Seminci)

With Wounded [+see also:
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interview: Fernando Franco
film profile] Spanish editor Fernando Franco won the 2014 Goya Award for Best New Director. That was the beginning of a slow but deliberate career as a filmmaker, which led him to later direct Dying [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Fernando Franco
film profile] and The Rite of Spring [+see also:
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interview: Fernando Franco and Koldo Z…
film profile]. He has now participated at the 70th Seminci - Valladolid International Film Week with Subsuelo [+see also:
film review
interview: Fernando Franco
film profile], an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Marcelo Luján, for which he won the Miguel Delibes Award for Best Screenplay alongside co-writer Begoña Arostegui.

Cineuropa: Is this your first thriller?
Fernando Franco: Yes, I'd been wanting to do one for a while. I’ve always been interested in the genre, and The Rite of Spring contained small, subtle elements of comedy and romantic drama. For some time, I had been talking with friends about the genre has been used in a classical way. Since I like to talk about thorny or underground issues, I felt compelled to convey them through a genre mechanism.

Subsuelo is a thriller, but not a dark one; rather, it is filmed in bright sunlight.
Indeed, it has been a challenge on many levels because I am doing things here that I have never done before. My three previous films were shot with a handheld camera and in sequence shots. This one is more stylised in form, using cranes, hot heads and tripods— quite a challenge to change the way I approach staging. I also use music, which I had never done before. I wanted to shoot a psychological thriller like the ones I like, such as those by Chabrol or Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, where evil bursts into the family environment and everyday life. I also play with confined spaces and minimal elements, like Polanski, with something murky simmering in the background.

That secret conflict in the film turns the family into a living hell.
I like to tackle dedicated topics and walk a tightrope so as not to fall to either extreme. We have a light-hearted view of families, as a kind and gentle institution. From the outside, however, you only see the tip of the iceberg. In Haneke's Code Unknown Juliette Binoche hears a violent situation involving her neighbours from her own home: those people you meet in the lift may seem friendly on the surface, but through the walls you can hear terrible things.

Why title each segment of the feature film with the name of a character?
That's not in the original novel, but the film is somewhat fragmented, and I thought a chapter structure would work better and serve as a hook for the viewer, without losing the temporal jumps. It’s a double-edged sword, because some critics have said that it’s told in a fragmented way like Rashomon, which is not the case — it is told from the perspective of the female protagonist. I was interested in breaking down the elements of the family unit through that chapter structure and ensuring that the character of the mother — fundamental in the novel, but greatly reduced in the film — receives the final title, restoring her role as the catalyst for what happens.

This is your second literary adaptation after Dying. How did you approach the original book, peeling it like an onion or adding some spice?
I sought the author's cooperation; he understood the transformation and has helped me with clues and elements. The novel is tremendously intricate in its timing, with the narrator mixing past, present and future. The challenge was to put everything in order, as it’s like a Moebius strip, while respecting the spirit of the book, though it was impossible to transplant it exactly as written.

The feature film highlights the communication gap between parents and their young children.
We were considering how to best address that gap. I’m also interested in mobile devices, as they can become vehicles for extortion, both through text messages and videos, given the amount of visual content they generate. They play an important role in communication — and miscommunication. I was careful to portray mobile phones thoughtfully, as sometimes emojis are sent that do not correspond to the sender’s actual situation.

Disability appeared in The Rite of Spring, and here the psychopath uses a wheelchair, which is unusual.
The lead actor had a coach who uses a wheelchair, and when I sent him the script, he told me he loved that the character was so evil. People in wheelchairs are often portrayed as beings of light, so it was important that this character take on a different role and not just the poor guy that everyone has to help.

(Translated from Spanish)