Ainhoa Rodríguez: “Destello Bravío [Mighty flash] is about magic and those who look for it”

Destello Bravío [Mighty Flash], Ainhoa Rodríguez’s debut feature film, returned to the big screen on 24th October 2021 during the Valladolid International Film Festival. The feature film, which premiered on 18th June, was presented as part of the Spanish Cinema section at the 66th edition of Seminci by its director and also by producer Concha Polo.

Defined by the filmmaker as “a film that talks about magic and those who look for it,” it was born out of Rodríguez’s need to return to her origins. “It’s something we auteurs have, to go back to the beginning of everything to build our films and works because, in some way, we are anchored to it,” the director told the festival audience.

Destello Bravío tells the story of a group of women in a small rural town, suspended in time and scourged by depopulation, who live between the apathy of their daily lives where nothing extraordinary happens and a deep desire for liberating experiences that make them rediscover the place where they were happy or dreamed of being happy.

The feature film features Guadalupe Gutiérrez, Carmen Valverde, Isabel Mendoza, Isabel Valverde, Isabel María Giraldo, Ángela González, María Sosa and Petra Parejo. In addition to the desire to return to her roots, the filmmaker said that she had “an immense longing to play with a group of natural actors and actresses,” making Tierra de Barros the set for her film work. To achieve this goal, Rodríguez decided to live in this village in Extremadura for nine months, until she became an inhabitant. “Thanks to the complicity that was created in the town, it was possible to capture all the magic that can be seen in the film,” Polo added.

Both Ainhoa Rodríguez and Concha Polo thanked the entire team that made it possible to undertake the Destello Bravío project. “They all worked their hands to the bone with us and the rest of the technical team,” said the director, who added that “the raw material for the creation of the film was the protagonists with their own lives, their experiences, their contradictions and their emotions.” Rodríguez closed the presentation by inviting the audience to enjoy her first feature film “with the greatest possible freedom and without prejudice,” “because when you dream of magic, it appears,” she concluded.

Destello Bravío will be screened again on Thursday 28th at Broadway Cinemas at 22:15h.