13/12/2022 - This week, the director of The Daughter wraps the shoot for his new feature, which he is co-producing himself and which stars young, first-time actors

Andalusian filmmaker Manuel Martín Cuenca (The Daughter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) has set his new movie, El amor de Andrea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile] (lit. “The Love of Andrea”), which was written by the director himself in conjunction with Lola Mayo (La mujer sin piano [+see also:
trailer
interview: Javier Rebollo, director of…
film profile], Lo que sé de Lola [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), in Cádiz. The very same province played host to a lengthy prior casting process in order to find the film’s protagonists. After more than 12 months, during which time the team saw 4,800 people, all of the young performers stood in front of a movie camera for the very first time. And after four weeks of rehearsals, the movie began principal photography at the beginning of November, with the action filmed in chronological order, but without the actors having seen a script, which meant that they gradually discovered the story for themselves while filming.

The storyline introduces us to Andrea, a 15-year-old girl who wishes to regain the love of her father, who vanished from their lives when he got divorced from her mother. Andrea remembers having a loving dad and fails to understand why he now doesn’t want to see his children. Tomás and Fidel, her two little brothers, will be her tireless companions on this adventure tinged with disenchantment.

In the words of Martín Cuenca, "El amor de Andrea is a film about affection and family, narrated in a light and free-flowing tone, with a simple mise-en-scène. And the main character is standing up for her right to have her voice heard."

Manuel Martín Cuenca (El Ejido, Almería, 1964) is one of the most prestigious and renowned directors in modern Spanish cinema. After shooting the short films Hombres sin mujeres and Nadie (Cuento de invierno) and the documentaries The Cuban Game and Cuatro puntos cardinales, he made his fiction debut with The Weakness of the Bolshevik, with which he snagged two nominations for the Goya Awards in 2003. These were followed by the features Hard Times, Half of Oscar [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], Cannibal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile] (which garnered eight nods for the Goya Awards in 2013), The Motive [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile] (nine Goya nominations in 2017, two of which it cashed in on, and the FIPRESCI Award at Toronto) and The Daughter (which was in the running for two Goyas in 2021). In addition, he directed the stage play Un hombre de paso, with text by Felipe Vega based on Claude Lanzmann’s work A Visitor from the Living, and starring Antonio de la Torre, María Morales and Juan Carlos Villanueva among its cast.

El amor de Andrea is a film being staged by the director’s company, La Loma Blanca PC, Lazona and El amor de Andrea AIE, in co-production with Alebrije Cine y Vídeo. It boasts the involvement of RTVE and Canal Sur Radio Televisión, funding from ICAA – Spanish Government and backing from the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions. The film will be distributed by Filmax.

(Translated from Spanish)