Liliana Torres shooting her third feature, Mamífera
- The film, toplined by María Rodríguez and Enric Auquer, began principal photography on 28 February on location in Barcelona
Produced by Distinto Films and Edna Cinema, the third fiction feature by Catalonian director Liliana Torres, Mamífera [+see also:
film review
film profile] (lit. “Female Mammal”), will round off her autobiographical trilogy that began with her feature debut, Family Tour [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2013), and continued with What Went Wrong? [+see also:
film review
interview: Liliana Torres
film profile] (2021). The movie will veer towards fiction in its purest form, and will abandon hybridisation and the use of non-professional actors, which were both aspects that characterised the first two instalments in the trilogy.
María Rodríguez Soto (Libertad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Clara Roquet
film profile], The Days to Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
film profile]) and Enric Auquer (winner of the Goya Award for Best New Actor for Eye for an Eye [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Plaza
film profile], seen not long ago in Two Many Chefs [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and in the second season of Perfect Life [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile]) star in the story of a woman who decides of her own free will not to become a mother, with the full support of her partner. At a time when a Spanish law was in force that obliged prospective mothers to reflect for three days before having an abortion, Lola, played by Rodríguez Soto, accidentally gets pregnant. The film tells of Lola’s experiences over these three days, during which time, despite making a firm decision to have an abortion, she will have to face all kinds of questioning.
As part of the film’s development, Torres gathered testimonies from various women and health professionals in order to build up her reflection on the decision not to have kids. “I want to contribute to destigmatising non-motherhood by explaining from within some of the motives that can lead to it. I would also like this project to serve as a mirror for other women who have decided not to become mothers, and who may feel alone and misunderstood. My wish is for this film not to be a defence of one woman’s option over another, but rather to weave webs of understanding between all of the possible models out there,” explains the director.
“It’s a screenplay that’s accessible to all audiences,” assert producers Miriam Porté and Carla Sospedra Salvadó in their production notes. “The film has a clear commercial scope without neglecting the fact that behind the main proposition lies a strong auteur approach. Because of its originality and universality, as well as the director’s career so far, it’s a film with the potential to compete at prestigious festivals.”
The project is a co-production with TV3, and it boasts the involvement of RTVE and support from the ICAA, ICEC – Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries and the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme. Filmax will distribute it in Spanish movie theatres in 2024.
(Translated from Spanish)
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