31/05/2023 - The second film by the Spanish director, in which the actress stars alongside Manuela Vallés and Irene Escolar, has already been shot, with production duties handled by JA Bayona

JA Bayona (The Impossible [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile], Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and his trusted producer Belén Atienza have been producing Free Falling, the new film by Barcelona-born Laura Jou (who made her feature debut in 2019 with Life Without Sara Amat [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and who subsequently directed various episodes of the series Cucut and Simple [+see also:
trailer
making of
series profile]), starring Spanish scream queen Belén Rueda (The Orphanage [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], The Pact [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Victori
film profile]). According to the brains behind it, it will be an emotional, tense and complex film about the limits of power and sacrifice, revolving around an overbearing and demanding national rhythmic gymnastics coach who, when she’s unable to cope with her own painful personal experience, takes out her frustration on her gymnasts.

The cast of the film, which was shot in Barcelona in February and March, and which is now at the editing and post-production stage, is rounded off by Irene Escolar (seen recently in You Have to Come and See It [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] and Official Competition [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Manuela Vallés (who appeared in the recent title Guilt [+see also:
film review
film profile]) and Ilay Kurelovic (A Twelve-Year Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álvaro Brechner
film profile]).

The plot, which blends drama and suspense, introduces us to Marisol (played by Belén Rueda), a national rhythmic gymnastics coach who is methodical, demanding and domineering. The World Championship is drawing nearer, and she’s pinning all of her hopes of winning the gold medal on Angélica, the most promising recent arrival on the team. Two weeks before the final, Marisol finds out that her husband has been having an affair with a much younger woman, with whom he is expecting a child. Marisol cannot face the prospect of failure, and so she embarks on a desperate race to win him back, with no regard for his reasons or his feelings. Her pain is carried over to the tatami, where she becomes ever more unforgiving with Angélica, in whom she places her hopes for success. At this point, winning the gold medal is all she has left. But is that really the case?

Laura Jou began her professional acting career in the late 1980s. After graduating from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona, ​​she worked in Julieta Serrano’s and Héctor Alterio’s theatre troupes. In 2001, after having taken an interest in directing and the psychology of actors, she began to work as a children’s coach, and her services were requested on titles by JA Bayona (A Monster Calls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile]) and the late Agustí Villaronga (Uncertain Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustí Villaronga
film profile]), among others.

Laura also runs her own acting studio as well as being one of the resident directing teachers at the ESCAC (Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya), UIC and UPF. The short film Don’t Leave Me (2015), starring Laia Costa in the lead female role, and which won an award at the Málaga Film Festival, was her first work as a screenwriter and director before she made the leap to helming features.

Free Falling is a production by Corte y Confección, Suspense Entertainment and Ejercicios de Equilibrio AIE. Its Spanish distribution will be overseen by Universal Pictures International Spain, and its international sales have been entrusted to Film Factory Entertainment.

(Translated from Spanish)