25/07/2023 - Filmed in natural locations around Andalusia, the film's cinematography is shared between Mauro Herce, José Alayón and the filmmaker himself

Director Manuel Muñoz Rivas (centre) with his parents (© La Maleta Films)

Seville-born Manuel Muñoz Rivas, who made his directorial debut with The Sea Stares at Us From Afar [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Muñoz Rivas
film profile] (2016), is in the midst of filming his new feature film Manantial. Starring Carmen and Manuel, the filmmaker’s parents, they decide to make a journey as an offering after he recovers from a serious illness: they travel along the course of a river in search of the hidden source of its waters.

Muñoz Rivas utilises his poetic and transcendental narrative to follow their journey through Andalusian locations: the Natural Parks of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas, Sierra Mágina (Jaén), Sierra de Grazalema (Cádiz and Málaga) and the Guadalquivir marshes (Seville and Cádiz).

For the director, "the origin of the film is inspired by Jorge Manrique's verse that says 'our lives are the rivers that flow into the sea, which is death'. With Manantial I want to turn this image on its head and create a reverse journey, from the end or mouth to the source of the river. A film that has the documentary value of portraying a region, the Guadalquivir valley to the Sierra de Cazorla, and the people who inhabit it, while at the same time presenting an allegorical tale. That is why, with the journey of an elderly couple looking for the source of a river, we aim to metaphorically evoke the search for the origin, the great mystery, the very source of life."

The cinematography is shared. José Alayón - producer here and director of Slimane [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - took charge of the first few weeks of shooting, who was relieved by Mauro Herce, winner of the Goya for Fire Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Óliver Laxe
film profile], and who has worked on previous works by Muñoz Rivas. The latter in turn has edited his films, so the artistic collaboration between them is very close.

“Manuel has been filming some scenes alone with his parents, in private, doing the cinematography himself (something that he did in his short film Aqueronte)”, said producer Jairo López, from El Viaje Films. "The filming device has combined five weeks with technical equipment in the road-movie part, but for more sensitive scenes inside the home, with more dramaturgy, he shot at the end of last year and is now in the involved in other scenes in a very artisanal way, with the artist in his studio controlling all the elements," he concludes.

Manantial is a co-production from the Canarian company El Viaje Films and the Andalusian company La Maleta Films, with funding from the ICAA and the Junta de Andalucía. It is also supported by Canal Sur and Ikusmira Berriak (read more). Editing will begin in September with Ana Pfaff (Alcarrás [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile]).

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)