How did it all start? Last December I attended the International Film Festival of New Latin American Cinema in La Habana. I had sent a first draft of Las Acacias and it won the Coral Prize for Best Unpublished Script. On my way back my flight was delayed, as well Jean-Christophe Berjon’s - the creative director of Critic’s Week. We met at the airport and I gave him a copy of my film on the spot.

You literally submitted by hand? Yes! Two months later, Jean-Christophe wrote to us asking for a subtitled version so that he could watch the film with his team. We had to wait until April for the announcement of the short list. When we received the news that Las Acacias was one of the seven films in competition we were literally on another planet!

The film is heavily based on the two protagonists. How did you find your actors? Casting was the most important thing for me. At first, I thought I was going to use a real lorry driver. I casted people for about a year, but although my preference was to work with non-professional actors, I also wanted the script to be carefully followed, the dialogues to be respected. I could not find anyone who matched the part until Germán de Silva appeared; he is a wonderful actor. Right from the beginning he deeply understood the idea of the film, the tone, and the personality of Rubén. We rehearsed a lot, but we followed a line, which was that we would not try to underline anything in the film. From the acting to the costumes, everything had to be very subtle.

What about the baby? Well, we obviously used a different approach. According to the script the baby was going to do what all babies do: cry, eat and sleep. In this respect, we were following the baby’s rhythm: whenever she was doing any of the above, we would adjust the scene that was on schedule. As the scenes were rehearsed in advance, hence it was just a matter of being ready with the camera. After the first two days of shooting, the baby felt completely at ease resting in the arms of the posers, the cinematographer and the costume designers. Incredible.

What took you so long to make your first film? My first feature was ground into a halt for personal reasons. I had to work in different fields – in fact, I was an editor for a while, but I never saw myself as such. For me this job was just about having a task to complete. I always felt as a director and I always thought that my first film would be another one…

You mean Las Acacias is not the film you always wanted to make? No. There was this other film I was working on for ten years, which I never got to make. Well, not yet. Back in 2001 I had a huge crisis in Argentina. I lost my work, I divorced with my wife, my father got ill, and I found myself nearly homeless. I stopped working on this project, but all of a sudden, I got the idea for Las Acacias and it really shook me; I realised that I needed to do this all the way. Las Acacias speaks about this moment of difficulty, the moment of one’s suffering. Even though the film is fictional, it reflects on my life, and the emotions portrayed are emotions of my own, that of solitude… If the film is moving it is because it speaks to the heart more than anything else. All we need to do is feel.

Did the film act in a meditative way in the end? Indeed. No doubt there was a lot of pain on the making due to everything I lost, but it was also a sort of rebirth. In fact, it was the only thing I was able to do at a time of crisis. Looking back, I think I needed to go through it to become alive again. Yet nothing was consciously planned. It all just surged.

Las Acacias has very little dialogue and hardly any music. Did you fear that by taking those risks the film might not be as effective? I did not put much thought into this. It is true that without music to support the narrative – and with a baby on set – we were against all odds. Nonetheless, it never occurred to me how people were going to respond. It was more about what the film wanted to communicate. SoI followed my intuition. To be honest, I was not up for explaining too much in the first place. That said, choices such as where the camera should be were very clear to me. I deliberately placed the camera inside the car. I wanted to be near the characters, to be able to feel what they felt. Everything was filmed from the point of view of the protagonists, not from that of an outsider-director.

Are there any directors that have inspired you? No. At least there isn’t any immediate influence linked to Las Acacias. Do not get me wrong - there are many directors I admire. I like Kiarostami, for instance, but I also like Michael Mann. I enjoy watching films, but I would not define myself as a cinephile. I do not have a large cinematic culture and of the famous films one has to see, I haven’t scored that many yet. I guess my film came out as it did instinctively.

What’s is your next step after Las Acacias? Will you start reworking on that film you left unfinished? I am planning to. But I cannot tell what the future awaits or whether I will be able to continue making films. You do not always know if you are going the right way or making the right decisions…Maybe my next film will be a disaster. Who knows?

by Eftihia Stefanidi