THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
Clara Roquet, 34, started in the cinema by writing. A field in which it was quick to carve out a fine reputation, particularly in Spain, its country of birth, and in Latin America. And this, thanks to the talent she was able to exercise on the multi-award-winning film 10,000km by Carlos Marques-Marcet (released in 2015) and on Petra by Jaime Rosales (2019). The young woman claims it, she considers herself first and foremost as a screenwriter.
It has happened, however, that she cannot bring herself to entrust to others the realization of certain stories that are particularly close to her heart. As was the case for El Adios (2015), his first short film, a bitter and cruel story about the indignity and lack of recognition shown by a bourgeois family towards a Bolivian carer, on the day of the grandmother’s funeral which she had taken care of.
This story was inspired by a childhood memory, Clara Roquet had not gone to the end. She chose to take it up again and extend it in Liberty, his first feature film which will be released in theaters after having passed through Cannes and La Semaine de la critique, in July 2021. A film whose duration is suspended during a summer during which a family disintegrates, recomposes and resigns itself losing its bearings. Those of a conservative bourgeoisie, attached to traditions, family ties and class privileges.
Tension on edge
This universe in which the director grew up, and against which she rose up as a teenager, concentrates in Libertad a lot of things left unsaid, lies, stiffness and rebellion that the director installs with patience. Then circulates while maintaining a tight tension. Which sneakily disturbs the summer torpor. Because something acts in depth during this “calm” parenthesis which will redefine the place of each one within the family, to undermine the transmission of moral and political values between several generations. After the holidays, nothing will be like before.
The film begins with gestures repeated at the start of each summer. Rosana (Carol Hurtado), the Colombian servant removes the sheets that cover the furniture, opens the windows, prepares the villa before the arrival of the children and grandchildren of the owner Angela (Vicky Peña) whom she takes care of the rest of the house. ‘year. We are in a chic residential area, on the heights of a small seaside town on the Costa Brava, in northern Spain. The family arrives, breaks the tranquility of the place, overloads Rosana’s schedule in a flash. It’s because there are people in the tribe, of different ages and requirements. Among the brothers and sisters, the spouses and the spouses, the cousins and cousins, let us mention only Teresa (Nora Navas), eldest daughter of Angela and mother of Nora (Maria Morera), a 15-year-old teenager whose shyness dooms to withdrawal and to boredom.
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