José Luis Guerin: “I wanted to take the island to the last consequences”
The film ‘De una isla’, directed by José Luis GUerin and produced by FCM, premiered on Tuesday night at Atlántida Cinemas in Arrecife.
Guerin portrays his personal vision of Lanzarote in 25 minutes. “It is a work that I feel mine because I do not differentiate between commissioned work and those of my own initiative, but if I imply or imply, and I have been involved as in the most intimate of my films,” the director explained to the audience after the projection. “I wish I had more orders of this nature,” he added.
He said he has created his own film island. In the film there is hardly any human presence. It tells a story, supported by subtitles, about a territory that could have been shot in the 19th century. Guerin explained that he had wanted to make “a rare movie” and wanted to explore the island and take it to the ultimate consequences “because making movies allows you to live things intensely”.
Guerin took on the challenge of breaking statism and facing “the immobility of the mineral” because cinema is movement. It introduces shadows from the clouds but also artificial elements such as fog, smoke and mist “because there is no vegetation that can read the wind in a world of stones”. He also said that he used the chain of images to give an idea of the extinction “that is very powerful on this island” and because he wanted to make visible those populations hidden by volcanic eruptions.
According to his words, he became a “landscape detective”. He said that there is an artisan claim in the film and that is why it is shot on celluloid, not digital, and that is why he wanted the texture and the veiling of light to be seen, “the material”, as César Manrique liked it.
