04/07/2023 - The ethereal short, unspooling at Karlovy Vary as part of EFP’s Future Frames, plays with stereotypes as youthful bad behaviour is converted into a paean to transformation

Christian Avilés’ Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays examines the phenomenon of “balconing” in the Balearic Islands. Said phenomenon sees teenagers (often British, often drunk) jumping from their hotel balconies into hotel pools. Unsurprisingly, death and injury have been common. This behaviour would seem to lend itself to a film of social realism, but Spanish-born Avilés opts for a more magical and ethereal approach, which makes for a film that is both insightful and elegiac.

After having its international premiere in competition at this year’s Berlinale, the film is now screening at Karlovy Vary as part of EFP’s Future Frames. We caught up with Avilés – who studied a degree in Cinema and Audiovisual Media at ESCAC (the Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia), specialising in Direction – to uncover some of the secrets of the film.

Cineuropa: When did you first become aware of “balconing”, and what was it about the phenomenon that made you want to make a film?
Christian Avilés: It is something that has been around for some time now, probably since the early 2000s and since young people started having cameras on their phones. The way I came across these images was, like everyone in Spain, by watching really low-resolution videos recorded by them, which eventually reached YouTube and the local media. We could see young boys throwing themselves off hotel-room balconies while everyone around them celebrated, which felt like a vision in itself. Balconies have always had this romantic connotation in drama and fiction as an element of sacrifice. Translating this to the era of 240p videos and internet exposure connected with the way I experienced my own teenage angst.

With the subject matter, there’s an assumption that you’d head down a social-realist route, but you take a much more mystical, ethereal approach. Why?
My approach to the subject had to do not so much with cautionary tales, but rather with my obsession with the occult and with the things that might be in front of our very eyes without us being able to notice them. The person next to us might be going through the most revealing thoughts, and because that’s an invisible process, there’s an irony in not being able to see it.

Fantasising over what could be behind this type of tourist behaviour that we, as local Spaniards, have little idea about would be a way to channel this idea of finding the spiritual element in a place where we don’t expect it. In the movie, the island becomes somewhere sacred, more of a pilgrimage than an ordinary holiday destination.

There’s an irony to the film in that it tells us a lot about British culture and mentality – as well as the mentality of being a certain age. As a person from Spain, do you think you’ve successfully explored this part of the British psyche?
I find it very relatable, akin to how someone would want to escape the weather and spend their holiday somewhere else with a radically different ambience. I’ve always been fascinated by how much influence the climate has on us; for me, it was the opposite. So many times, I have felt depressed when I’ve woken up to another sunny day and wished for rain. Especially through my teenage years, which is a phase that I consider contains some of our most extreme emotions.

What about the filming process? Were there still COVID-19 restrictions in place when you made it? There are lots of extras and expansive locations. Was it challenging?
Indeed! That was one of the most challenging parts of bringing the project to life. At the time, we weren’t allowed to have as many people as were needed on set, which was a nightmare considering we were shooting a film about people gathering for the summer. It required our team to get creative and do what we could with what we had, so quite a few crew members actually appear as tourists, playing more than one character – sometimes even in the same shot.

I very much appreciate your question because it gives me the chance to thank my cinematographer, VFX artist and guardian angel Manuel G Romero, who not only made it look like there were far more people than there actually were, but also transformed locations that we didn’t have the budget for and which were very necessary in order to tell the story accurately.