Actress Itsaso Arana has filmed her directorial debut, The Girls Are Alright
- She also stars -along with Irene Escolar, Itziar Manero, Helena Ezquerro and Bárbara Lennie- in her debut film, a summer tale recently filmed in León
The Girls Are Alright [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Itsaso Arana
film profile] is the title of the first film directed by Itsaso Arana, an actress best known for her personal and professional collaboration with Jonás Trueba (having appeared and worked on The Reconquest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile], The August Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] and You Have to Come and See it [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile]), although we also recently saw her in The Volunteer [+see also:
film review
film profile], by Nely Reguera, and she will soon appear in the Netflix series Las de la última fila, directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo.
This directorial debut features Bárbara Lennie (who premiered El agua [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elena López Riera
film profile] at Cannes and will premiere Los renglones torcidos de Dios in the autumn after San Sebastian), Irene Escolar (recently in Official Competition [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and You Have to Come and See it), Itziar Manero (the series Días mejores), Helena Ezquerro (the series La reina del pueblo) and the director herself. It is a film with a play within it, but it is also a summer tale. The story of a spell, with princesses, toads, rivers, letters and even an absent-minded prince, according to production.
Its plot, written by the filmmaker, portrays four actresses and a writer spending a week in an old mill in the summer, with the intention of rehearsing a play. Over these days, the women will get to know each other through the materials in the play and will contribute their own experiences around the themes of their characters: love, beauty, orphanhood, faith, friendship, acting and death.
In the words of its director, the film "talks about how women's stories and tales have shaped us and also damaged us. But, above all, it is a film about love: to an alchemical and ancient craft like acting, love between women, love of storytelling and listening. We filmed it out of the belief that sharing ourselves makes us better.”
Arana has had a long career as an actress and creator. With a degree in textual interpretation from the drama school RESAD, she is one of the founders of the performing arts group La tristura, with which she creates, directs and performs in plays such as Actos de juventud, Años 90..., Materia prima, El sur de Europa and Cine. In 2012, she also directed the medium-length film John y Gena (which premiered at the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival), based on images of the artistic and intimate couple John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. She has also appeared, among other fictions, in The High Pressures [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ángel Santos
film profile], by Ángel Santos; Seventeen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniel Sánchez Arévalo
film profile], by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo; and the television series Spanish Shame [+see also:
interview: Juan Cavestany
series profile], Gente hablando, Alta mar, Dime quién soy and Reyes de la noche.
The Girls Are Alright bien is produced by Los Ilusos Films (a company owned by Jonás Trueba and Javier Lafuente) and will be released in theatres in 2023, and will later be available on the Filmin platform, which has acquired exclusive VOD rights. Filming, which took place in an old 17th century mill in Nistal de la Vega (León), was recently completed.
(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)
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