05/07/2023 - The Spanish performer, screenwriter and now first-time director talks about her film, starring herself and four actress friends, which she presented at the Czech festival

(© Elvira Iranzo/Los Ilusos Films)

Itsaso Arana is a well-known face in Spain’s performing arts and audiovisual scene who has made the leap to film directing with The Girls Are Alright [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Itsaso Arana
film profile], a film competing in the Karlovy Vary Festival and which will be released in Spanish cinemas on 25 August, distributed by Elastica. From Prague airport, about to return home after presenting her debut film in the beautiful spa town, she answered our call.

Cineuropa: If I’m not mistaken, you’ve already been to Karlovy Vary with The August Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile], which you co-wrote with Jonás Trueba and starred in, right?
Itsaso Arana: I came with this feature film four years ago, also in the official section. And last year the team from the production company Los Ilusos came, because You Have to Come and See It [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] was also in the main section, but I couldn’t come because I was in the middle of filming The Girls Are Alright. So, we already have great memories of this event with lots of students and people camping out, a super lively and effervescent city, with packed cinemas.

As the mother of this cinematic creation, if you had to define The Girls Are Alright, does it have a genre or does it not need one?
I don't know what genre it is, because it's not a documentary or fiction, it's a bit period and at the same time modern... sometimes wild, funny, light. It finds its own genre, which has come out naturally, from the inside out. I don't shoot it to illustrate any idea, although it is a declaration of love to the women in my life, specifically to four actress friends who lent themselves to this generous adventure where they spill personal experiences, a risk for them to expose themselves like this. And what I like the most now, the first feeling after having given birth to it, is that you can perceive the tenderness from where it is conceived, its softness and delicacy, but it also has something surprising and, in its own way, feral. I’m proud to have found its own nature and scale: human, small, shot in two weeks and suddenly seen in an international showcase like this festival. I filmed it without much pretension and that nature was kept right to the end.

Did you feel overwhelmed when you started filming - because you hadn't directed a short film before - or did you have the relaxation that the film conveys?
I've been directing theatre for years and the tools I've gained from that were very useful for the shooting. I didn’t feel like I was in an unfamiliar place or position, but obviously everything cinematographic from that directing position often escaped me. I felt, even though they let me do things - good or bad - that I was doing it my way. It was a small team with simple planning, as I've shot before with Los Ilusos, so I was able to bring it to life in my own style. Obviously, I was afraid, the fragility was there - I've never denied that I was scared to shoot it - I went in humbly and made the film I felt I could make, a blend of bravery and fear.

The previous work with Jonás, the series Las de la última fila or your last released performance, H [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Pardo Ros
film profile]. How have these works influenced you and, in a way, shaped you, to capture the qualities that a filmmaker should have?
That's interesting! I think that a director absolutely sets the atmosphere of the shoot, which is an extension of the personality, the virtues and the not-so-good things of the person who is leading: I have seen that over time. Jonás' filming is quiet, respectful and hesitant, a portrait of the filmmaker's personality. In that sense, I tried to create my own atmosphere, to put into practice the things that I would’ve liked to experience on certain shoots or that I felt were necessary for this particular one. So, I tried to be a decisive but soft, gentle and trusting leader and, at the same time, to simplify processes. A human-scale, possibilistic cinema that I could understand, even though shooting is a battle against time and space. The Girls Are Alright has a bit of a summery lightness, but it is ambitious in its themes, and I tried to create an atmosphere where creativity and care were at the heart of it.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)