Laia Costa: "Idealized motherhood is a matter of capitalism"

• Berlinale 'Five Little Wolves': against the myth of the perfect mother

• Málaga 'Cinco lobitos' and 'Utama', resplendent golden biznagas at the Malaga Festival

• European Film Awards https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2015/12/12/566b671ce2704e6d118b462c.html

He doesn't remember (or doesn't want to) if the nickname they gave him on the school basketball team was a matter of his parents or simply his character.

The fact is that the legend (let's leave it at that) says that at some point in her life, Laia Costa (Barcelona, ​​1985) turned her head if she heard someone call her

.

Be that as it may, and to continue with the myth, her role in

her dazzling directorial debut by

it is worthy of a tornado, a cyclone or a simple hurricane scream.

After her triumphant passage through the Berlinale, even greater for her has been her success in Malaga (golden Biznaga and prizes for both her and Susi Sánchez).

Now, this Friday, it opens and although it's not hurricane season, the work of the most international Spanish actress is there to take it all away.

What is the truth in that Hurricane? I don't think that nickname has ever been defined for me.

That is a thing of the euphoria of the

. How much has Laia Costa changed since the success in 2015 of the German film

Now? That German film that triumphed at the Berlinale was, so to speak, my moment of maturity.

And Cinco Lobitos occupies a very important place in my career.

It is a very special project that means both the return to work after the pandemic and the return to Spanish cinema.

Before, he had only done the series Foodie Love with Isabel Coixet in Spain.

I feel that it has come full circle and even more so after seeing how Alauda's film has also had the repercussion it has had at the Berlinale.

It's been like coming home, a cycle closing. Does it hurt to be more recognized outside than inside? No, I don't feel like I'm not recognized in Spain.

If you make American independent cinema you limit the public.

And I understand that.

Anyway, I have a hard time distinguishing between inside and outside.

I live everything as a continuum.

For me it's all the same cake.

And I think it's a generational issue.

I have worked in many cities and in all of them I have met people from all over the world.Isn't playing a new mother when she is about to become a new mother something redundant?

It came to me when I was three months pregnant.

And that was almost permanent.

What the film raised is what happened to me.

And I was interested in investigating it.

We started shooting the year I gave birth and that's how the film starts.

I only made the condition that it be shot with real children and not with dolls. The director spoke of imperfect motherhood...Yes, I would speak of imperfection and, above all, precariousness.

Being a mother today is a precarious situation.

There are no aids.

Before there was a tribe that protected.

Now, in this society, individualism counts a lot. What the film discusses is the idealized image of the mother... In the world of cinema there are only two types of mothers: the perfect mother who is always wearing makeup and who has slept without problem all night, and courageous mother who fights heroically.

Well no,

Between that black and white there are all the grays, which is where the truth is. What bothers you the most about that idealization? Why do you never talk about not falling asleep?

It is the number 1 method of torture.

You go from sleeping to not sleeping for months.

They are very simple things that are hidden.

You stop having neurons in your head: the baby brain they call.

The baby doesn't care that you can't read.

I am convinced that many things are not talked about because they are taken for granted.

And that ends up being as pernicious for everyone as a taboo.

It is not forbidden to talk about how bad it is when you are a mother, but nobody does.

And that creates many misunderstandings and contradictions. For example? Something very simple.

The WHO recommends breastfeeding on demand for the baby up to six months, but at work they only give you four free.

And that without taking into account that there are many jobs in which you are not allowed to express your milk. And whose responsibility is it? Capitalist society is interested in that ideal or idealized image of motherhood because that way you do not lose productive time with your creatures.

It is interesting that you are a mother, but without stopping working. And where is paternity in this reasoning? Here we return to precariousness.

The precariousness in which young people live conditions everything, including a more responsible parenthood compared to previous generations.

The concept exists, the ideas are clear, but I think there are no tools to change the rules of the game of patriarchy. Since we are thinking about how to change the rules to achieve fairer labor relations,

How do you see the changes that are intended to be introduced for sick leave due to painful menstruations?

I have to put the batteries because I have been very disconnected for work.

I shoot 14 or 15 hours a day.

Between that and the little one, I don't know what day I live on.

But I find it interesting that there is more and more dialogue and that there is talk of things that were not even touched before.

That has to be celebrated.

It is very intelligent to always open the doors to debate.

We all know someone with extremely painful rules that make them unable to work. In the film, her character almost lost her job due to motherhood.

Bearing in mind that his motherhood ran parallel to filming, how has it affected him professionally?My work and my motherhood, both of them, have been affected above all by the pandemic.

I found myself living in the United States with closed borders.

I spent the first 13 months as a mother dedicated exclusively to being a mother.

The amazing thing is that I haven't missed anything about my daughter.

But, on the other hand, I have had to do it completely alone, without a tribe and without help.

There were days I couldn't even have a coffee.

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