PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain / France
Celia Rico wraps the shoot for Los pequeños amores
- The Andalusian filmmaker has been able to bank on Adriana Ozores and María Vázquez as the topliners of her intimate and personal sophomore feature
In mid-August, Celia Rico (Seville, 1982) wrapped filming on her second movie, Los pequeños amores [+see also:
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interview: Paco Plaza
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interview: Celia Rico Clavellino
film profile], starring Anna Castillo and Lola Dueñas, was first presented in the New Directors section of the 2018 San Sebastián Film Festival (where it scooped a Special Mention and the Youth Award) and racked up four Goya nominations.
Shot over the course of six weeks in various locations in Catalonia, Barcelona and Madrid, the film explores the contradictory bond of admiration and reproach that exists between two women from different generations. It’s a bond that defines and gets right to the core of the bittersweet experience of love and solitude in this modern world.
The storyline tells of how 42-year-old Teresa (played by María Vázquez) changes her holiday plans and spends the summer with her mother, Ani (Adriana Ozores). However, living together day and night after so many years is not easy for either of them. Used to living alone, it’s hard for them to agree on even the most trivial of things. Nevertheless, this enforced cohabitation will also bring certain revelations for both of them.
“They are two women whose characters and mindsets dictate the course of the summer they will spend together,” states the director. “It’s a film about the most ordinary, mundane things that happen to us when we live with our mothers, but also about the most complex ones, those other things that crop up unexpectedly when we see ourselves reflected in them and we observe our lives while staring into the mirror of years gone by.”
The filmmaker continues: "Writing a screenplay is usually a solitary and personal process, but when you shoot it, it turns into a shared piece of work. Thanks to this team, I’ve had the opportunity to turn something that I dreamed up one day into a film. And so now that we’ve finished, I feel happy to have been able to shoot a second feature surrounded by the best crew and such a marvellous cast. María, Adriana and Aimar have worked with so much love and attentiveness, and in such depth, so I’m infinitely grateful for the trust they’ve placed in me.”
Los pequeños amores is a production by Spanish outfit Arcadia Motion Pictures (which also threw its weight behind Rico’s debut feature) and Viracocha Films AIE, in co-production with France’s Noodles Productions. It boasts the involvement of RTVE, TVC - Televisió de Catalunya and Filmin, funding from the ICAA and ICEC, and support from the CNC and MEDIA. Bteam Pictures will be in charge of its Spanish theatrical distribution, with a release slated for next year.
(Translated from Spanish)
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