25/04/2024 - Actor Manu Vega also toplines the film, which is currently being shot on Lanzarote and which unpacks the consequences of toxic relationships

Fragments, the new fiction feature by Horacio Alcalá, is currently being shot on the island of Lanzarote (Canaries), with principal photography set to wrap in May. It stars Emma Suárez (the winner of three Goya Awards, the latest of which were for Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] and The Next Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isa Campo, Isaki Lacuesta
film profile], and whom we saw last year in La ternura [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Alguien que cuide de mí [+see also:
trailer
film profile], as well as appearing recently in the series Red Queen), Manu Vega (Lobo feroz [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), José Luis García Pérez (the series Las noches de Tefía [+see also:
series review
series profile]) and Asia Ortega (Malnazidos [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), who are flanked by Sonia Almarcha (Jaula [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Good Boss [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Ciro Miró (the series Hierro [+see also:
series review
interview: Jorge Coira
interview: Olivier Wotling
series profile]).

In Fragments, which boasts a screenplay penned by producer Frank Ariza, the Madrid-based Mexican filmmaker portrays the intense and revealing emotional journey of two couples in a volcanic community: a paradise that’s on the brink of collapsing when these people cross paths with each other and begin to question the significance of their relationships and what love means to each of them. What follows is an explosion of emotions in this idyllic setting, where the four main characters will gradually discover the truth about each other when they remove the masks they had been using to hide behind.

“With this film, I wish to introduce a group of characters with the ability to love, deceive and cause harm to the ones they’ve loved,” explains the director. “I am spurred on by the need to make a film that shows the sheer complexity of the human being. These characters are neck-deep in a superficial and unhealthy love driven by impulses, by the need to grab hold of something more than the real feeling. I think that almost all of us have been in a relationship weighed down by an unresolved trauma, condemned to heal from the wounds it has caused,” he sums up.

Horacio Alcalá, who was born in Guadalajara (Mexico) in 1978, previously helmed the documentaries Grazing the Sky, My Kingdom Come and Hasta el alba, as well as the magical-realist drama Finlandia [+see also:
trailer
interview: Horacio Alcalá
film profile], shot in Madrid and Oaxaca. The latter title got an airing at the 37th Lovers Film Festival in Turin, Guadalajara, Seattle (where the director picked up the Golden Space Needle Award) and the Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival (where it scooped the Best Fiction Film Award), among other festivals, in addition to receiving three nominations for the Ariel Awards presented by his native country’s film academy.

In the words of actor Manu Vega, who is also serving as an executive producer on Fragments, “Through a narrative that teeters between the dreamlike and the worldly, this movie will examine the most profound depths of toxic and dysfunctional relationships as well as second chances. Because its characters don’t just clash with one another, but also with themselves, calling into question the foundations of their relationships as well as their own lives.”

Fragments is being staged by La Noria Producciones in conjunction with AF Films and BTF Media (which has acquired the rights for Latin America), together with Match Point and E-Media Canary Project. Carlos Salem is on board as an associate producer for Calypso Entertainment, and Francisco Cordero and Ricardo Coeto serve as producers representing BTF Media. Its distribution and sales will be entrusted to the brand-new outfit AF Pictures.

(Translated from Spanish)