Press Conference: “Silent Light”

For the presentation of Silent Light in Competition, director Carlos Reygadas, lead actress María Pankratz, male lead Cornelio Wall Fehr, and producers Jean Labadie and
Jaime Romandia discussed the film with journalists. Excerpts follow:

Carlos Reygadas, on what he owes to Carl Dreyer’s Ordet: “Ordet is one of my favorite films. My film is an homage to it. However, there’s a fundamental
difference between my film and Dreyer’s. Not only in terms of the language; mainly, it involves the power behind the film. For Dreyer, that power is God. In my film, it is people. But I don’t
demand that you share my point of view.”

Carlos Reygadas on his directing methods: “There was a strong resemblance between my actors and their characters, so it was simply a question of making them feel what the character felt.
Aside from giving them indications about space and time, there wasn’t a great deal to do.”

Carlos Reygadas on how he thinks of the viewer: “There’s no such thing as a viewer. There are people, individuals watching a film, and each has his own world. When you start
talking about the viewer, you start to reduce these individuals to their lowest common denominator… I have a great deal of respect for each person who comes to see my film, and I know that
some of them will be bored, and that others will find it moves at an ideal pace, and still others will wish it was longer.”

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