“Somewhere else ; love is where you least expect it”, says the poster of what promises to be the blockbuster of the year. Miguel Angel Munoz and the Mexican actress Emerald Pimentel dominate a cover in which it is already sensed that this "other place" is the green Cantabria, with which many of us have been in love for a long time.
The story is based on a classic conflict: two urbanites (Muñoz and Pablo Puyol, both former One Step Forward) receive in inheritance two cows and a donkey in a remote town. They embark on a journey with the intention of selling the animals, but of course, they fall exhausted before the Cantabrian countryside and its people.
It is not for less: "For a director, seeing how the locations that he has imagined become a reality is, basically, pure happiness . Then there is the responsibility of making the best of those landscapes and making sure that the film shows the beauty and personality of those places. I think that in the film, Cantabria is seen as it really is: majestic, serene, wild, beautiful, and that is what this film needed and what the viewer is going to see: a beautiful love story in spectacular landscapes ”, tells Traveler Jesús del Cerro, director of the film.
The script, in fact, was only set in the north of Spain, but when del Cerro and the film's screenwriter, Joseph Louis Feito , visited the Community, realized that already they couldn't roll anywhere another place . Especially when they found the spectacular environment in which the old tree around which the film takes place grows.
“We wanted a centenary tree, majestic, surrounded by a meadow on the side of a mountain, with wonderful views of the valley and a stone cabin nearby. That's what I wanted; the reality of shooting a film also implies that this space is accessible to trucks, caravans and all the logistics of the film”, recalls the filmmaker.
When Víctor and Juandi, production locators, found the right spot -after having toured the Community from top to bottom-, the director couldn't believe it: "I realized that it was better than i ever imagined ”, he affirms.
It was not enough to get a solitary tree; in addition, it had to be in a suitable place to house the production team
Another unforgettable setting for del Cerro is the Square of Lierganes . “It is a fantastic square, with history, with personality, crowned with the famous village mountain , which illustrates the movie poster photo,” he explains. When they found it, yes, it was under construction, with all the pavement raised. “We asked and they just finished the work a week before filming; again, everything lined up to make the best film in Cantabria”.
The choice of the protagonists was simpler: “ With Miguel Ángel and Pablo I worked many years ago in A step forward ”, says the director. “They had never worked together again, and it seemed to me that they were going to do an extraordinary couple and with the characters changed: Pablo, the daring one, and Miguel Ángel, the shy and fearful character. I proposed it to them and they took three to five seconds to say yes, ”he recalls with a laugh from Cerro.
“Pablo and Miguel Ángel are my friends, with which the filming was presented very well. Later, we were looking for a Mexican actress and there José Luis Feito, screenwriter and executive producer of the film, proposed to Esmeralda what, basically, was the fate of our lives. Esmeralda is a great actress and the perfect shooting partner.”
Actress Esmeralda Pimentel is already a star in her country of origin, Mexico
THE CHALLENGES -AND THE WONDERS- OF SHOOTING IN THE SPANISH COUNTRYSIDE
In another place, that will premiere on May 27, it was rolled at the end of 2020, when not many dared to launch a film project due to various health restrictions. To this challenge, however, another was added: that of recording outdoors. “ Shooting in the field and with animals is always complicated ”, admits del Cerro. The rainy days and their subsequent mudflats they are a real headache for a production, which needs to move many trucks.
The 'heroines' of the film, the two cows and the donkey that the protagonists receive in inheritance, did not make it much easier either: “ We had to arm ourselves with patience and carrots so that Jacinta, our donkey (protagonist, she), was in her place when she had to , and it is already known that the stars are very capricious. The cows were calmer, but from time to time they decided to take a walk to the despair of our shepherds, who ran after them. In the end everything went well; the cows and Jacinta were outstanding and in the film you will see these new stars of Spanish cinema shine ”, jokes the director.
The director Jesús del Cerro with the donkey that 'stars' the film
Despite the difficulties, del Cerro believes that we will see more and more fictions set in Spanish landscapes : “I started shooting Family doctor, that it was the first series that combined drama and comedy, exteriors and interiors; later, the first professional series was shot: everything was urban. In cinema it was shot then, basically, in Madrid and Barcelona, and the countryside, with few exceptions, was for period films”, recalls the professional.
“The Spanish audiovisual industry has grown and matured, and now, For each project, different approaches, different visions and locations are sought. The production companies have lost their fear of traveling and using each and every one of the possibilities that Spain offers. It is not a wish, but an obligation if we want endow our industry with richness and variety. The next hop will probably be leave our borders ”, he predicts.
The task of moving productions to the rural environment has become almost an obligation now that the 'back to the field' has gone from being a desire, according to the director, to being part of the lives of many Spaniards and even sneaking into the government's agenda: "In recent years, rather than talking about or idealizing, people return to the field really ”, Opina del Cerro, who feels a great attachment to his two towns: that of his mother, Valtierra de Riopisuerga, in Burgos -with ten inhabitants- and that of his father, Alcabon , in Toledo -with 650-. "In my case, the field is a reality," concludes the filmmaker.