Dentro de lo azul evokes a love story that seems to be pieced together through a couple’s memories or dreams. What was the concept behind this film?
One of the first things that captured me about this screenplay, was that it was a very pure portrait of how we fantasize about romantic love when we first start to experience it. This film was written several months before the shoot by the lovely and talented Kim Pamintuan, who, at the time was 16 or 17 years old. Dentro de lo azul is the second part on a triptych on sapphic longing I have been weaving since we shot the material in 2018, where my obsession is centered around transdimensional romantic interactions.
“Are you here with me? Sometimes, when I’m not paying attention I feel as though you were here, like you’re close enough to touch me and hear small noises that you make”, says one of the lovers in Pond Illusion (part I of this triptych), “but then I realise it wasn’t you I’ve been spending my time with, it was your absence.”
Is that why you use overlays or split screens?
Yes, the treatment of the image and sound in Dentro de lo azul is my interpretation of the sensations and dynamics behind transdimensional romance, where images and sounds fleet or shape-shift in the process of remembering, fantasizing, or trying to communicate with a lover through dreams or telepathy. The seeming impermanence when engaging with our inner images might be hard to grasp, however this involvement always comes with the gift or punishment of feeling closer after a separation.
There is a certain sense of violence in this couple’s relationship, combined with the tenderness and sensuality that come through in the image. How did you work with your director of photography, Negin Khazaee?
Tenderness and sensuality sugarcoat our sadistic impulses to insist on unrequited love, don’t they? Regarding my work with Negin, this project was the genesis of our creative relationship. When Negin and I met, we instantly gave each other a sense of belonging and a place for us to explore the filmmaking processes we were curious about without having to give each other too many explanations. We simply entered the relationship in a state of trust in each other’s taste, callings and craft. We are both practical and delusional in similar ways, so communication between us when we are creating images happens quite naturally.
The voice-over dialogue unfolds like hypnotic loops that carry both narrative and musical weight.
The use of overlays, which I call membranes, on the image and loops in the soundscape both came as downloads rather than straightforward decisions.
In 2021 I was starting to edit the first cut of MACDO, but I was blocked and decided to take a break to clear my mind. After a few days of reckoning, I realised I wasn’t moving forward with the “new” material (MACDO) because I had unfinished business with the images in Dentro de lo azul.
So with this new finding and the coherence with my process that it came with, I sat down and prepared the ground for this portrait of sapphic longing. The coherence I speak about is essential in my process, because the peace of knowing I stand in alignment allows me to reach a state of flow where my logic mind shuts down and I allow my hands on the keyboard to show me the way (very similar to what happens when we dance freely, when the mind surrenders and becomes a witness to the expression of its vehicle, the body).
In terms of editing, this means moving things around on the timeline through inklings and then, at some point zapping out, pressing play and revealing what the film is meant to be.
Dentro de lo azul is a celebration of sapphic love and also a political statement.
Sapphic love opens the doors to an emotional landscape that is seldom granted access to the collective imaginary through censorship and eufemisms. Across time, how many evidently sapphic gestures, from works of art to relationships, have been narrated as portraits of “intense friendship between women”?
So, inevitably, yes, a film like ours is a political statement (also, filmmaking is inherently political) however, in an ideal world this is just a film about two people who love each other and have a hard time finding a common ground for their needs and desires.
Why did you choose Rebe’s song “Ven a buscarme temprano” for the end credits?
To me it is the most romantic song in the world, I love the atmospheres and images it carries in both the melody and the lyrics. Every new listen I marvel at this detailed machination of a dream escape with the person who makes you melt to the ground; a romantic tension so tangible, intimate and oneiric at once, which on top of everything features a resonance with the soundscapes and themes weaved into Dentro de lo azul. Ever since the song came out in Rebe’s EP Solo pasiones…, it was a fantasy of mine to be able to use it for one of the pieces in the triptych and I am so thrilled to close this film under the ethereal spell of Rebe’s daydreams.
Interviewed by Olivier Pierre
