The use of love stories to address a variety of issues was discussed by four directors with films selected for the Tiger competition of this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The filmmakers - Marguerite de Hillerin, Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois, Roberto Doveris and Rahat Mahajan - spoke virtually during the IFFR on Tuesday (February 1).
De Hillerin and Dutilloy-Liégeois’ A Criança is set in 16th century Portugal and explores the life of a young man, Bela, from a poor Lisbon neighbourhood which was transformed after his adoption by a merchant whose son had died. The young Bela ends up with everything he could hope for in life, including money and a beautiful fiancé. Despite this, he embarks on a clandestine love affair with a servant working at a local monastery.
The relationship’s rationale is unclear, and the directors leave the audience questioning whether it was motivated by a quest for freedom, a need to transgress or passionate love.
“The film revolves around intimate tragedy. It plays with the desires of a young man as well as the desires applied on him by others,” said Dutilloy-Liégeois. The drama unfolds steadily as the narrative navigates secret tragedies, terse relationships and affairs.
“We thought we would make them free as they are living in a beautiful place,” said de Hillerin. “Their feelings however are in apparent contradiction with this beauty, and this comes through in their suffering,”
The idyllic locations and forbidden relationship make for an allegory of rich and powerful classes degenerating into weakness.
Chile’s Roberto Doveris uses a failed romance as the backdrop to Proyecto Fantasma, which centres on a young actor Pablo whose heart is broken by an ex-boyfriend. When a housemate leaves unexpectedly, Pablo is left to deal with his lodger’s collection of plants, clothes, a dog and, unexpectedly, a ghost.
Shot primarily at Doveris’ own home, it marks his second feature after Las Plantas in 2015. The title, Proyecto Fantasma, has a double meaning.
“Fantasma in Spanish is a term used not only for ghost but also for a parallel, hidden project, so there was a play on words in the title,” Doveris said. “My own characters are also artists, and they are developing projects.”
India’s Mahajan uses a love story to fuel human motivation in The Cloud Messenger, which follows 16-year-old Jaivardhana’s experience in a prestigious yet authoritarian boarding school adjacent to the Himalaya foothills. His horizons broaden when he is introduced to photography, an interest which leads him into a full-blown love affair with new pupil Tarini.
Mahajan captures the amorous sentiments between the two, anchoring them into centuries-old desires reminiscent of classic Indian tales about lovers in this coming-of-age film with a cosmic dimension.
“The love story between the two lovers is just one metaphor,” said the filmmaker. ”It is not just about the two lovers but a story about your own journey of becoming.”
Mahajan added that he intended the film to convey hope “as we all go through so much in life. We lose somebody and face extreme challenges for which we blame the world. The story is a metaphor in that whatever bad is happening is just a preparation for you to become who you will be.”
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