Alberto Olmo: “El agua” is a way of explaining fiction through a documentary film

The Spanish Cinema Section screened Elena López Riera‘s feature film, El agua, this Monday, 24 October, at the Valladolid International Film Week. The presentation was attended by its protagonist Alberto Olmo, who gives life to one of the main characters around which the plot of this film revolves. The film also features the participation of Luna Pamiés, Nieve de Medina, Bárbara Lennie, Irene Pellicer, Nayara de Lucas, Lidia María Cánovas, Pascual Valero.

El agua centres its plot in a small village in south-eastern Spain, where a storm threatens to verflow the river that flows through it. An old popular belief states that some women are redestined to disappear with each new flood because they have ‘the water inside them’. Meanwhile, a group of young people try to overcome the tiredness of a summer in that town that smells of death by smoking, dancing and lusting after each other. In this electric atmosphere that precedes the storm, Ana and José live a love story until the storm breaks.

“A film full of magic, details and caricatures that usually happen day after day in our daily lives”. This is how the protagonist briefly summed up El agua before it was screened in the auditorium. This film was the first appearance in a film for the actor, who confessed that from the very first moment he connected in a unique way with the character. “I felt like I was part of the process, like I was at home. The difficulties I encountered were those little things that brought me closer and closer to my character”, explained Olmo.

The actor also dedicated a few words to his director, whom he thanked for giving him the role. “Elena has a way of making a documentary in cinema, something that has been seen very little and that in the end is a way of opening people’s minds”, added the actor. Finally, Alberto Olmo told the festival audience that “it’s up to you to see what meaning you want to take away [from El agua], that’s why the ending is so open, so that you are left with that doubt”.