Avelina Prat presents her new film 'Una quinta portuguesa', which reflects on the search for identity through the traumas and ghosts of the past.
Manolo Solo, María de Medeiros and Branka Kativ star in this film competing in the Official Competition of the 28th Festival de Málaga.
On Monday 17 March, director Avelina Prat presented 'Una quinta portuguesa', her second feature film, which is competing in the Official Competition of the 28th Festival de Málaga. It is a quiet film, but full of enigmas, suspense and plot twists, reflecting on the search for identity through the traumas and ghosts of the past.
For Prat, identity is something that is shaped over time. "Not only do you create it with your place of birth, but little by little you incorporate experiences that lead to the creation of new identities. That is why, when it comes to drawing my characters, I have always been interested in people who have been forced to emigrate or move to new places", she said at a press conference together with the lead actors, Manolo Solo and María de Medeiros.
The plot unfolds in a Portuguese villa, a location chosen strategically "because it also defines the personality of the character whose story I wanted to tell". Prat referred to it "as a house with elements evocative of mystery, a bucolic place where its protagonists meet and share stories to help them overcome their traumas".
When Prat began the writing process, she already had Manolo Solo in mind, as she confessed at the Festival de Málaga. Specifically, I was looking for someone that anyone could identify with. In narrating this film - which she has described as very literary - she has included stories within stories.
The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. He drifts aimlessly, impersonating another man as a gardener at a Portuguese villa, where he strikes up an unexpected friendship with the owner and enters a new life that does not belong to him.
The script is structured around three characters of different nationalities and backgrounds. However, despite these very different identities, they share the same essence, traumas and ghosts of the past that will create a mirror effect through the compassionate gaze.
It will be released in Spanish cinemas on 9 May.
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