A vampire journey through the forests of Euskadi and Navarra
somewhere between Let me in Y coven . somewhere between interview with the vampire Y Handia . That's where it would be Ilargi guztiak. all the moons , second film of Igor Legarreta (which debuted in 2018 with When you stop loving me) which, after the inevitable delays caused by the health crisis, finally manages to be released in theaters this Friday.
And it is that, cinematographically speaking, it would be halfway between the most existentialist vampire cinema and the new wave of Basque cinema, going through a great time thanks to Pampered productions that know how to exploit the full potential of their culture and mythology.
Haizea Carneros gives life to Amaia, a girl turned into a vampire to be saved from her untimely death
However, as its director, Ilargi Guztiak, points out. All Moons “is not a horror movie. It is a romantic story, a fantastic drama that reflects on our desire to endure, to transcend, that precious loot they offer most religions in exchange for a life dedicated to faith. A gift that seems to remove the shadows of existence and it seeks to protect us from the fear of death.”
To locate it geographically we have to move to Euskadi and Navarra. The film is a beautiful journey to its forests, mountains, caves, meadows, cliffs, valleys, rivers, waterfalls and lakes. Also to its most remote villages, with their mansions and their churches.
Filming began on February 17, 2020 in the Gipuzkoan town of Mutriku, and was developed in different locations in Guipúzcoa (Mutriku, Gaintza, Artikutza, Zizurkil) , Biscay (Orozko, Gallarta, Erandio) and Navarre (Erratzu, Urbasa and Leurtza reservoirs) . Four weeks after starting it was interrupted by the state of alarm.
For more than two months, in which the team remained confined, was used to advance the editing of the film and reorganize the production to face a second phase of filming that took place between June 1 and 20, being one of the first in the country to be completed after the state of alarm. All in order to recreate the last third of the 19th century, the time in which the story begins.
Josean Bengoetxea plays the role of Amaia's father
As Legarreta comments, “The places chosen for the filming of the film are authentic secondary characters. The locations not only contribute to enriching the staging, to giving the story a magical halo, but also caves, mountains and forests help us better understand the emotional map of the characters and their place in the world”.
At the head of these main characters we find Amaia, a girl turned into a vampire to be saved from her untimely death. She is played by debutante Haizea Carneros, for which the director spares no praise: “Intelligent, disciplined, full of talent. Haizea has shown in her film debut that, if she wants to, she has a long and fruitful artistic career ahead of her. For now, we will be able to enjoy in Ilargi guztiak her strength and her vulnerability, her doubts and her courage. From her fear of her pain, and death, and her desire to overcome it”.
accompany her Itziar Ituno (which we know mainly from her work in La casa de papel) and Josean Bengoetxea (Fe de ETA, Errementari, Loreak…), who assume the respective maternal and paternal roles of the eternal orphan. They also participate Lier Quesada, (An Autumn without Berlin) as the town boy, and Zorion Eguileor (The hole, Agur Etxebesteǃ) as Don Sebastián, the manipulative local priest.
Shot in Basque, its author describes Ilargi guztiak. All moons as “the story of a sentence. The condemnation of living forever, that old desire of humanity that seems to go against its very essence. The story of a condemned must wander through life in search of death snatched from it, thus beginning a long journey towards acceptance; the acceptance of life as a complex and unpredictable process that can only be given perspective through death itself. Life and death, in short, as something indivisible”.
Itziar Ituño, in the role of Amaia's mother