Lucía Puenzo © FDC / LOB
UN CERTAIN REGARD RENDEZ-VOUS: Lucia Puenzo, figurehead of the new Argentinian cinema
Lucia Puenzo, daughter of filmmaker Luis Puenzo, is no slouch. At 36, she has already made three films and written five novels. Her last feature film XXY picked up the Grand Prix at the International Critic’s Week in 2007, before being voted best Argentinian film of the year. In 2006, the young director took up a Residence at the Cinéfondation. The 66th Festival marks her first selection In Competition for Wakolda: the true story of a family who unwittingly gave shelter to a Nazi.
Tell us how your film came about.
Before becoming my third film, Wakolda was my fifth novel. I spent almost a year writing first the novel, then the script, submerged in the complex reasons which made the Argentinian government open its doors to so many Nazis, even making a law to allow them to use their real names. I was always intrigued by the reasons that made hundreds of Argentinian families become accomplices to these men.
Any special memory or anecdote from the shooting?
We shot almost the whole film in Patagonia, at below zero temperatures, with several children and two newborn babies… Every day was an adventure. To make things even more fun, we all lived in the same hotel where we shot the film. And, as the whole team acted in many scenes, they kept their wardrobe for the rest of the day. So, the boundaries between reality and fiction were quite blurred for six weeks.
Can you tell us about your next project?
I’m writing a new novel called Los invisibles, and two scripts for Latin American producers: one based on the life of the Italian photographer Tina Modotti, and the other called Dementiaville, to be shot in Colombia next year. I’m also editing a short film on based on the Malvinas war which I shot last month in Patagonia.
Lisa Revil
SCREENINGS
Tuesday 21 May / Debussy Theatre / 4.30 p.m.
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