Fernando Franco’s The Rite Of Spring, which screened this year at San Sebastian International Film Festival ahead of its October release in Spain, tells the story of the relationship between Valeria Sorolla’s university student and a young man with cerebral palsy, played by Telmo Irureta.
“It’s not an easy film,” Sorolla says, “but I’m very happy with the reviews and the audience’s reaction. It feels both like a beautiful closure to a process that was very intense from the first minute and like a new beginning, because the film now belongs to everybody who watches it.”
The casting process was different to what Sorolla, playing her first lead in a feature, had experienced earlier in her career.
“It felt like they were in search of a character more than an actress,” she recalls. “Physically I don’t think I fitted what they initially had in mind, but that triggered conversations about it during the casting process. As an actress, you’re rarely given the chance, the time, to express yourself like this.”
Sorolla shares the screen with veteran actress Emma Suarez, who plays the mother of Irureta’s character. “[Suarez] was very supportive throughout the shoot. She always had great tips. She recommended taking out my contact lenses for the scenes in which my character is drunk. I’m very short-sighted and, yes, that blurriness worked wonderfully,” says Sorolla, with a laugh.
Interested in acting since childhood, Barcelona-based Sorolla began in musical theatre and later co-founded the experimental arts collective Matriu ID. Its recent production Karaoke Elusia premiered at Barcelona’s prestigious Sala Beckett theatre, and will open at the Centro Dramatico Nacional in Madrid.
On TV, Sorolla has appeared in Moebius (Catalan TV3) and Mòpies — “kind of a Mallorcan-style Stranger Things” — and has been cast in Luis Prieto’s horror Estación Rocafort, produced by Nostromo with Film Factory Entertainment, which started shooting in Spain at the end of October.
“We probably say this every year, that it’s a good moment for Spanish cinema, but I truly believe it is,” says Sorolla. “And I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”
Contact: Iraida Martos, Matilda Talents
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