19/12/2025 - The Catalonian producer is promoting his fifth feature as a director, into which he has poured his concerns and recurring motifs as an auteur, alongside a group of actor friends

(© Oscar Orengo)

Emergency Exit [+see also:
film review
interview: Lluís Miñarro
film profile] had its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and then went on to screen at Spanish festivals such as Gijón. Its director, screenwriter and co-producer, Lluís Miñarro, always a pleasure to talk to, spoke to Cineuropa shortly before the film’s release in Spanish cinemas, scheduled for 19 December, courtesy of Sideral.

Cineuropa: At which festivals was the film best received?
Lluís Miñarro: At Gijón, audiences are very much used to a more disruptive language; the Teatro Jovellanos was packed, and the reception was very good – the audience had a great time watching the film because it’s also made to entertain. And at Tallinn, they asked me to add two more screenings to what we'd planned, as the audience demanded it.

Indeed, this isn’t a regular proposition, with that mix of humour, theatricality and provocation…
You know I’m far removed from more conventional cinema. I don’t disapprove of its existence, but narrative, realist cinema is already being made by others: that’s 90% of what’s out there. So if I can offer a slightly different vision, in this case perched between dream and reality, I feel more comfortable.

And does it connect with your previous work?
Yes, in all of my films, there are dreams and characters that find themselves in a closed environment, and they contain elements of protest. In one, it may be beauty; in another, more political issues or the difficulty of bringing order to a country.

How do you split yourself, Lluís? What does Miñarro the director demand of Miñarro the producer?
Miñarro the director has the advantage that, being a producer as well, he uses resources very efficiently, and there’s nothing superfluous in his work. This film was shot in just three weeks, with two or three takes per sequence, among other reasons because, as Abbas Kiarostami used to say, actors are better in the first take; later, they get hooked on it and just repeat it mechanically. Since I never go beyond a third take in any sequence, and there are no superfluous elements on set, that’s the principle I tend to apply to my own films when I’m producing. And as for those I produce for others, I try to respect the filmmaker as much as possible, out of respect for cinema itself and because, if you’ve embarked on something with that person, you’re not going to meddle by changing certain things, even if you are keeping an eye on everything. But if I’ve ended up establishing a bond with that person, it’s because they share my outlook: I’m not fixated on the economic outcome of what I do; I prioritise creativity. To invest so much time in a project with someone, you have to be clear about who you’re with.

Like a marriage… an artistic one.
Yes, a marriage in which there is then a non-tragic divorce, an amicable separation. I have a rule of not making more than two films with the same director, so as to allow myself to work with others. Because in those processes, you learn from the director and they from you.

But you haven’t honoured that pact with yourself…
Of course not – I’m five films in with myself; there’s always an exception to the rule. But I came late to directing because producing took up much of my time, and I waited until I felt mature enough to contribute something to the small history of Spanish cinema.

Emergency Exit feels like a gathering of friends.
It took a long time to secure financing (five years), but we had a great time; it’s like a game and a fantasy for the viewer. For instance, there’s a performance by Myriam Mézières that wasn’t in the script; life steps in when you’re shooting and tells you how you have to do things.

This road movie exudes saturated colours, much like the cinema of Douglas Sirk, and brings to mind Querelle by Fassbinder, shot (also with intense colours) on a soundstage.
I love Sirk; he's one of my favourite directors. Well-made melodramas fascinate me because they have emotional intensity and are political. And I also like Fassbinder. My film couldn’t have been made any other way: aesthetically, I like 1970s cinema, with a certain artisanal air to it. And Hitchcock also shot on stages and sets, with rear projection, like I use in mine, which gives the movie a dreamlike tone that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve in a realistic landscape, plus there were the advantages of being able to work with the actors comfortably, without road closures.

(Translated from Spanish)