02/03/2023 - The recent Goya winner heads the cast alongside Hovik Keuchkerian in the adaptation of Sara Mesa's novel of the same name, directed by the Catalan filmmaker

Laia Costa and Hovik Keuchkerian on the set of Un amor (© Isabel Coixet)

On 20 February Isabel Coixet began shooting her new film, Un amor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile], based on the best seller of the same name by Sara Mesa. She has co-written the screenplay with journalist Laura Ferrero, who previously collaborated with the Catalan filmmaker on her documentary The Yellow Ceiling [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. For the director of The Bookshop [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (a screen adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald's book) and Elegy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (from Philip Roth's literary original), the desire to adapt this new book to film was immediate. According to her, her challenge lies in "How do you make yourself understood in a place where everyone lies? This is a film about love and all its synonyms: despair, discomfort, passion, fear and redemption."

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Her new feature film stars Laia Costa (recent winner of the Goya for Best Actress for Lullaby [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
film profile] and who will shortly be presenting Elena Trapé's Els encantats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] at the Malaga film festival), who has already worked with Coixet on the HBO series Foodie Love [+see also:
series review
series profile] in 2019. Completing the cast is Hovik Keuchkerian (acclaimed for the series Riot Police [+see also:
series review
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
series profile] by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and known for his performance in Money Heist), Hugo Silva (whose last film was the comedy Un novio para mi mujer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and who will star in the series produced by Pedro Almodóvar Fleeting Lies [+see also:
series review
interview: Esther García
series profile]); Luis Bermejo (recently seen in Rainbow [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and in the series La ruta), Ingrid García-Jonsson (last year in Won't Kill Each Other with Guns [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]) and Francesco Carril (favourite actor of Jonás Trueba in titles such as the recent You Have to Come and See It [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile]).

It tells the story of how, after escaping her oppressive life in the city, Nat (played by Laia Costa) finds refuge in the small village of La Escapa in the depths of rural Spain. In a rustic and dilapidated house, accompanied by a wild and ragged dog, the young woman tries to rebuild her life again. After facing the hostility of her landlord and the distrusting locals, Nat finds herself accepting an unsettling sexual proposal from her neighbour Andreas (Hovik Keuchkerian). From this strange and confusing encounter comes an obsessive passion that will consume the girl completely and make her question the kind of woman she thinks she is.

Un amor –to be filmed over five and a half weeks on location in La Rioja– is a production from Marisa Fernández Armenteros for Buenapinta Media, Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza for Perdición Films (who have Juan Antonio Bayona's La sociedad de la nieve [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: JA Bayona
film profile] pending release) and Monte Glauco AIE, with the participation of RTVE, Movistar Plus+, ICAA and the Government of La Rioja. It will be distributed in Spain by Bteam Pictures with international sales managed by Film Constellation.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)