What We Know [+lire aussi :
interview : Jordi Núñez
fiche film] is a (modest) production from Pegatum Transmedia which takes place in the bright and sunny city of Valencia and its coasts. The film, which premiered at the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and then went on to other events such as the OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Miami, opened the official competition of the recently held  37th Mostra de València – Cinema del Mediterrani, and will soon arrive in Spanish cinemas, distributed by #ConUnPack. Its director, Jordi Núñez, 31, spoke with us.

(L'article continue plus bas - Inf. publicitaire)

Cineuropa: Some of the actors in your feature film have also appeared in your short films.
Jordi Núñez: Yes, this film follows my short films, in that I have kept the family that was created there, but I have expanded it with new Valencian members. Much of the team was formed in my final master's project at the TAI School of the Arts, such as the directors of photography and art. We had a good connection and we kept it going, so it made sense to work with them on the feature film, as we were in sync.

As seen in your film, does Valencia have a distinctive light?
Yes, cinematographers love it. It was important for the film, with its universal background, to have a local form, using it as a narrative and dramatic element, to be an emotional setting that engages with the process of the characters and the story, sometimes ironically, reaffirming or searching for the beauty of what does not seem so beautiful at first.

In What We Know there are two stars, each one from her own era: Samantha Hudson and Rosita Amores.
Yes, I saw Rosita acting as a child and to have her in the film is an honour. And they are very similar, each one responding to their specific moment. It is beautiful how Rosita slipped into a grey historical moment, generating an unprecedented and joyful atmosphere so that the LGTBI collective had a point of reference to look up to. For Samantha to be here today, Rosita had to be there first.

Time is an unstoppable force, one of the great themes of the film.
Yes, and the fascinating idea that all time converges and is present: the protagonist closes a stage of her life and dissociates herself from her own memories. The film also speaks to the fact that we cannot only hold on to the echoes of what was, but to the present and respond to truth/reality, as a way to mastering the art of losing.

Expectations are not always met... there is a certain melancholy in the second part of the film, after a more joyful first part.
Yes, the ending is more bitter and disenchanted; I wanted the film to have three time blocks with different energies. The first act is very naive, everything is possible because everything is yet to come, it is the definition of happiness, with the feeling of possibility. In the second, everything you aspired to is there and now what, because you have to respond to it. In the third, the loss has been accepted and the fire is somehow reborn.

Do we have to learn to let go and embrace loss?
There are many characters in the film stuck in this attachment, going round and round in circles. I had Douglas Sirk in mind, and I was reading the book that Antonio Drove wrote about him. The American director talks about the diabolical rondo, with those characters trapped in their own dynamics and destinies, unable to get out of them. I am also interested in the idea of healing through friendship and love. This can be seen in the first act, with how the group of friends welcomes the foreign protagonist.

Besides Sirk, who else did you have in mind?
Those who came after him, such as Pedro Almodóvar and Todd Haynes. Also Sofia Coppola as Marie Antoinette. I wanted it to be a film to live in, like Fernando Trueba's Belle Époque or Jane Austen's novels. I was also inspired by the Greta Garbo-type heroines at the end of Queen Christina, on the bow of the ship, against the wind and following her destiny, by Ozu and the heroines of classic Japanese cinema, with the beauty of the ephemeral, but I also wanted her to be part of the Fallas and with some of the sainete and humour of Vicente Escrivá and Berlanga, that Valencian world that would fit into this classic melodrama like Splendor in the Grass. I had all this in mind.