Film Name: La Nueva
Director: Ivan Villamel
Writers: Raúl Cerezo, Ivan Villamel
Starring: Marga Benedicto, Enzo Biosca, Pau Blanch Mestre, Miguel Cañaveras, Efren Fuentes
Maria is the new teacher who arrives at an old religious school. On her first day, she will have to teach a group of rebellious teens who are part of a punishment class. An unexpected event will turn the classroom into a real hell.
In a new interview leading up to the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival, I got a chance to ask co-writer/director Ivan Villamel a few questions about what we can expect from the film La Nueva.
La Nueva will be showing at Horror-on-Sea at 3pm on Friday 13th January
Q. Your film has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect from the film?
A. First of all, thank you very much for the selection of the short film in your festival. We are very happy to show our work to your audience.
La Nueva is a very tense story, without a moment of respite for the viewer, where surprises and twists come unexpectedly, and with a final reflection on any kind of bullying and its consequences. We make no concessions, and it is a very hard and forceful vision, full of malice and black humour.
Q. What were some of your influences when writing the script for La Nueva?
A. To be honest, neither Raul (my co-writer) nor I were thinking about any specific reference, at least consciously. We both really like horror movies from the 70’s and maybe our subconscious went to those films. We really like it when horror offers something more, a second reading, an open door to dark areas of the mind, and we always try to start working on a usual place to offer our own distorted vision of painful themes.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. The look references are actually quite varied. When the look is more realistic, we intended to approach the visual style of European fantasy cinema, especially Nordic, with that cold and depressing look, which I think fits very well with the idea of showing the religious school as a place where students lose their personality for the benefit of a very strict and cold teaching.
On the other hand, this look goes very well to create a contrast when the infernal presence enters (an orange very much influenced by Vittorio Storaro’s photography). I don’t want to make spoilers, but let’s say that this radical difference is very appropriate for the contrast between good and evil, but paradoxically the colour (normally associated to something alive and positive) is ironically associated to evil in this case. The alternative for the characters is not much better and that’s why we did those “muted” colours.
The style and its cinematographic language decisions are mostly influenced by the cinema of the 70’s, with very aggressive and risky visual compositions and framing, even using bifocal optics to express the extreme contrast between characters and their intentions. It is inevitable to think of Brian De Palma and other filmmakers of that time. In this particular project, those were the influences.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. We made practically no changes with respect to the script, because the script was already very well worked when we arrived at the shooting. I must say that co-writing this script with Raul Cerezo has been one of the most satisfying and enriching creative experiences I have ever had. It was a constant brainstorming with a person who has a creative sensibility very similar to mine, and I am very happy with the script.
The only change we made in the script was marked by something unforeseeable, a physical space that was smaller than we had thought in the script, specifically, the scene of the final confrontation between the two protagonist boys. We had in mind a classroom where the distance between the tables and the blackboard was bigger, and we had to create some new details to make it more credible at a narrative level because that physical distance was very small in the classroom we had to shoot. Anyway, being honest again, I think it improved the story and the narrative, creating even more tension. Better.
That’s the only change in the script, leaving aside some small variation in some dialogue or acting decisions, the usual.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. It was a very hard shoot, because we had a limited production, and that makes you stay tense during the days of shooting, which were only three, very few for a story of these characteristics.
In any case, there are always very special moments when you shoot, always associated with expressive ideas of visual language, which is something that stimulates me a lot, creating expressive shots and with an internal sense regarding the emotions of the characters. My favorite moment was when we shot the whole scene of the final confrontation between the leading boy and the bad boy of the class, his rival. Each shot has its expressive meaning, both in the use of visual scales with the bifocal lens and constantly separating and joining them in the shot depending on the narrative game of what happens in the action and the tension that this causes. I really like that scene.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. There are always problems when you’re filming, otherwise it wouldn’t be cinema ha ha, but nothing out of the usual time stresses, limited budget and all these usual things when shooting a short film or any independent film. In fact, thanks to the wild effort of the whole team, the short film went ahead and with such good results, every member of the team gave their last breath to make it happen, and I can only be grateful because otherwise the short film would have been impossible to make it happen. It was a great challenge, and we overcame it.
Q. What makes La Nueva stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. Normally we usually find in horror films many stories where the message ends up taking too much prominence and conditioning the narrative. We are very proud of the short film because both fans of the most aggressive horror, as well as those looking for something more, will be able to identify with it. The message does not consume the story, it does not condition it, nor does it take more prominence than necessary, although it is always there. In addition, the story is very intense, with a devilish pace, and that makes the fifteen minutes of duration pass very quickly, always involving the viewer in a diabolical game and very black humour. We make no concessions with the characters and the plot twists always follow that path.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. I hope that when you finish watching the short film you will have several feelings, first of all that you enjoyed watching it from the horror fan’s point of view, suffering with the characters, enjoying the wicked twists we have written and feeling that your evil side doesn’t feel guilty with our controversial characters haha.
I also hope you enjoy the purely cinematic work that we have worked with the image, where we have taken great care of the details and that each shot tries to go beyond and have a life of its own. Finally, that it makes you think about how bullying can create monsters, literally. When one person mistreats another, the final line that separates good from evil can be erased and roles can be exchanged. Pain, meanness…they are contagious and should make us think about how we treat other people.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. I’m always working on new projects, you know. It’s the life of the creator and the aspiring filmmaker. Right now, I’m trying to get several feature films projects off the ground and starting to work on others, hoping to shoot some of them in the near future, if things go well. Fingers crossed.
I can’t go too far ahead, because we are still in a very early process, but we are considering the possibility of developing a feature film based on the short film as well. This year 2023 gives us hope.
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. I don’t like to give a lot of advice, because you never know if you’re helping, but I would tell them to be themselves in their stories. I think what makes the difference, even among successful short films, is the originality or the personal point of view you show in your work. There are a lot of good successful short films on the festival circuit, but not so many original ones. And originality doesn’t have to be in the storyline, but in how you tell it, in putting yourself out there and going off the beaten path and offering twists that represent you as a creator.
I would also tell him to fight with all his strength for his project, because if you don’t do it, nobody is going to do it for you.
La Nueva will be showing at Horror-on-Sea at 3pm on Friday 13th January. You can purchase tickets and merchandise for the festival on the website here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
