Ten years ago, we premiered “Los ilusos” and thanks to that impulse, we have continued to create films throughout this time. These have been difficult years, with many crises and unexpected changes, during which we have been learning to make movies together.
The film we premiered in 2013 was the result of a creative process that lasted several months, but we have always thought that it all started a little earlier, when we shot “Todas las canciones hablan de mí” back in 2009. That feature film was produced by Tornasol Films during a particularly tumultuous time due to the global economic crisis, which was already wreaking havoc in Spain, and it added to a new crisis in cinema, in the midst of the transition from celluloid to digital and a paradigm shift for the entire industry. Even under those circumstances, “Todas las canciones…” was shot on 35mm, following production, distribution, and exhibition criteria and parameters from an era that was already fading away, and it had its theatrical release at the end of 2010. It was fortunate to be able to make a film in that way, to live such an experience, and to learn from it. We also suffered a lot, had to deal with many problems, and face a number of contradictions. We even experienced a very characteristic syndrome of cinema, which is nothing more than the feeling of having arrived late to Cinema (as we had idealized it). But we took note: we couldn’t continue down that path of melancholy that inevitably led to frustration.
Los ilusos team shooting on the streets of Lavapiés. Photograph by Miguel Ángel Rebollo.
In 2011, I started editing a new film using the recordings I had made with my mobile phone between 2007 and 2009. Those images, with only 3 megapixels, showed that waiting time before the filming of “Todas las canciones…”. While selecting and organizing the material with Marta Velasco, I began to appreciate it in a different way; I understood that we could transform all that frustration into positive energy. The film “Los ilusos” began to take shape in my mind at that very moment, as a writing and staging of what I had unconsciously captured in those “Miniatures”. At first, they were just vague illusions in my head, but then Javier Lafuente came over one afternoon and asked me what I was up to. I suppose I told him about all this, stuttering. What was surprising is that he understood it clearly and encouraged me to take the plunge. He said, let’s do something, let’s not wait for someone to come and offer us something because it doesn’t look like anyone is going to come… We have to rely on ourselves. Let’s do something with what we have. We have the desire, we have friends, we have some money (not much), let’s put it there and give ourselves that chance. I will always remember that conversation, decisive and at the same time natural, as something that couldn’t have happened any other wa
Picture of the team on a rooftop of Plaza Mayor, after shooting a scene at dawn. Photograph by Miguel Ángel Rebollo
