There are probably as many ways to walk as to live. And even to die. Thoreau, for example, was walking against nature (his principally) convinced that "everything good is wild and free." Baudelaire or Walter Benjamin, on the other hand, recognize in the walk a way of using the time that leads us to the encounter with our own existence. In his ideology, walking is a project that frees us from every project. "The domain of the walker's experience is necessarily another"; a different one in which the truth, like this in general, is a trance. He walks aimlessly, without intention, without the vocation for the adventure that distinguishes the explorer. He walks through the intimate pleasure not of recognition or discovery but, as has already been said, of the encounter.
The three protagonists of Invisibles , the last film by Gracia Querejeta, take a walk. And there they go with firm step Emma Suarez, Adriana Ozores and Nathalie Poza. They do it their way. His is not a leisurely or "floating" or adventurous walk. They walk because they do and they do it in a circle; each of them trapped in the network of their obsessions. "They live," says the director, "condemned for their neuros. A bit like everyone, but they more ». In their peripatetic course, they reach a revelation that they might not want to have ever known. It is an encounter in the manner of Benjamin, but it also has much of the vertigo that Thoreau intended. «30 years ago», recalls Querejeta, «when I was shooting When you return to my side , I remember that Mercedes Sampietro made me an observation that left me baffled. "You still haven't heard, but women when we reach a certain age, we become invisible," he told me. I saw her, so bright, so beautiful, and I didn't know what I could mention. But yes, I understand now ... ». What the characters in the film find and the director understands now is nothing more than something as obvious, hard and cold as time.
“It may sound awkward, but the truth is that time is much harder with women than with men. From a certain age, women disappear. They don't even look at you. Time is much more unfair to us than to men ». The patriarchy? "Definitely. Although, the truth is that we all want to be looked at, we all like to like it. I don't know anyone who doesn't want to be looked at. Visibility is the most obvious proof of success, whatever the latter is, ”reflects the director while offering the interpretation guidelines of a film perfectly aware of walking slightly against the current. «We have become accustomed to the fact that a feminist film is speaking of empowered women , women who take charge of the situation. But no, you can also talk about feminism from fear, loneliness or anguish. And one more for the conflict: «In women there is more pressure. There is something even animal that I don't think is only social. I am convinced that the salary gap will eventually be remedied and the number of female directors will increase over time to match that of directors ... but I have the impression that what will never be remedied is that after a certain moment women leave of looking at us It's like that ... And on top of that, we are becoming more and more like our mothers ».
The three characters are quoted in good morning every Thursday. One (Emma) fights, as the executive she is, in a world of men forced to be perfect in every movement. Against the condescension of some, against the envy of others and against the machismo of all. Another (Adriana) has long built around an insurmountable shell. She is a teacher and defends herself against the weaknesses of her students, the indifference of her husband and, again, the machismo of all. And the last (Nathalie) fights with all his might the threat of loneliness. Although that means accepting the misunderstanding of your partner, the contempt of your partner's daughter and the evidence, again, of everyone's machismo.
«I admit that all of them are me. I have something of three and I recognize perfectly at three. Perhaps it is the character of Adriana, the one in the shell, who best defines me. When you decide to dedicate yourself to what your father does and your father is Elías Querejeta, you have to shield yourself. It is not something that procures you many friends. I knew that because of who I was, woman and daughter-of , they were going to demand more from me. On the other hand, I've always had the feeling of being alone. Now you see that the new directors support each other and have each other as referents. When I started, we were four or five. And a good part of them left it, ”he says as an impromptu biography.
Directing is very demanding. Likewise, women prefer a tidier, less risky job.
Grace QuerejetaThe movie progresses like a strange and revealing torrent. The camera literally floats (or, better, flows) in front of not so much the characters as each of their insecurities. And that while destabilizing everything, makes everything much more serious. The director tells that it was two and a half months of time that were compressed in 28 days of filming. And all of them, at a marching pace against cholesterol. "You can't imagine how much travel is done in just five minutes." The original idea was to make a series for television. And as such, the script was walking through the offices until he got tired of going around and the idea itself, she alone, decided to come alive in the form of a movie. «Maybe it was the atmosphere, maybe the moment. Let's say the new feminist wave made all of a sudden everything make sense. No one will doubt anymore, ”he says.
It is not clear Querejeta why there are so few directors. «The same is that women don't want to. Directing is a very demanding job. Likewise, women prefer a tidier, less risky job, ”he says. He understands, however, that the Government has approved protectionist norms that make it easier for women to lead. «I think that these types of measures should be applied especially with people who are starting. Personally, it is hard for me to tell Fernando León de Aranoa or Enrique Urbizu or Álex de la Iglesia that I have more right than them, ”he says. And for the end he insists and leaves the conviction that despite everything, despite reforms, changes and revolutions, a woman at 50 and so many is more invisible than a man in the same situation, age and time. "It's a problem, structural, not cyclical," he says. And it goes on: "Yes, I am aware that the approach is controversial." And there, walking, leave it.
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