Paz Vega, director and star of Rita’: ‘I’ll never go in front of and behind the camera at the same time again’

• The actress competes in the Official Section with a story of gender violence told through the eyes of a young girl.

Valladolid, 20 October 2024. Actress Paz Vega premieres today in the Official Section of the 69th edition of the International Film Festival of Valladolid (SEMINCI) her directorial debut, Rita. The filmmaker and screenwriter has faced an ambitious challenge, which includes acting and directing at the same time, working with children and portraying a sensitive subject such as gender violence in the film. But she has learned that she will never again be in front of and behind the camera at the same time. ‘I admit that this is the part I enjoyed the least’, acknowledged Paz Vega, who announced that she already has the script for her next project as a director. ‘I enjoy acting, but what I am most excited about at the moment is being able to spend my time writing and directing with a logical consistency that would allow me to earn a living’.

Rita is a drama that transports the viewer to a working-class neighbourhood in Seville in 1984, where a seven-year-old girl dreams of building a house by the sea for her mother, who senses a sad reality outside the camp, the one her mother suffers in silence. ‘The film is not biographical, but the images I have constructed are images that I have lived. I have tried to make the film realistic, so I went back to my own childhood’.

Rita’s real situation, seen through the innocence of children’s eyes, is related to gender-based violence. Without pretending to give an answer, Paz Vega did consider launching a message: ‘The ball to end gender violence is in their court, not ours’. The filmmaker also admitted that the film is a tribute to the mothers who sacrificed everything for their children and who had no other choice in life. ‘We are the women that we are, and we are living the reality that we are living, because we had mothers who, although they could not live it, told us: ‘study, don’t depend on anyone, be free’’.

Paz Vega’s experience as an actress in films such as Lucía y el sexo (Goya for best new actress), Solo mía and Carmen made her feel prepared to direct and to create a good atmosphere on the set, which is especially important when working with children. As recognised by three of the children, from the main character, Sofía Allepuz, to her colleagues Alejandro Escamilla and Daniel Navarro, for whom it was their first experience in film, the filming was for them like a game and a place to learn and make friends. In this sense, Roberto Álamo, who plays Rita’s father, acknowledged the difficulty of performing a work with the high dramatic intensity of his role and, during the breaks in filming, becoming a clown to entertain the children.

Producers Gonzalo Bendala and Marta Velasco have admitted their surprise at the professionalism of such young actors, as well as when Paz Vega presented them with a script of only 60 pages, convinced that she didn’t need more scenes to shoot and that, due to her experience, they were discarded in the editing room. ‘We were struck by her great confidence’, acknowledged Gonzalo Bendala.

Regarding the filming with children, Paz Vega has admitted that she would have liked to have been able to film sitting behind the combo watching the image of the shot, but she knew that she had to be next to the children, directing them with small indications because she wanted to tell the story from their point of view and their innocence, without going into morbidity.

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