“Opening up to others makes us better”: Discover Les Filles va bien, a powerful ode to Soros!

In the middle of summer, five young women gather in a house in the village to rehearse a play. Sheltered from the oppressive heat, they share their knowledge of friendship, play, love, abandonment, and death, with the secret hope of getting better. This is the idyllic setting created by Spanish actor and director Itsaso Arana in his first film, Girls Are Fine, in theaters today.

Also written by him, this vivid feature film about Soros touches on a multitude of themes that are both universal and deeply personal. Its great feature is its quasi-documentary dimension, which makes it more authentic and intimate. And it primarily depends on the choice of actors who carry this film. On the day of the theatrical release, its director spoke to us.

“The first step was the choice of actors. It was very important to me that these were people, that they were not interchangeable, that they had a real connection to the film in each of them. “ Itsaso Arana explains. What follows is a series of filmed interviews between the director and the actors Barbara Leni, Irene Escolar, Iciar Manero and Helena Ezquero, which serves as the basis for writing the screenplay.

“When we were on set, this very scripted material, we wanted it to be completely porous, and we wanted to be able to immerse ourselves in what each day brings when we’re together and playing together. So when Itsaso Arana learns that Barbara is pregnant, he decides to include her in the script. A unique approach that emphasizes the accuracy of the story!

The union of two female tandems

If the choice of these four actors is so immediately obvious to Itsaso Arana, who also stars in the film, it’s because the director has already crossed paths with them during his career. He knows Itiar Manero and Helena Ezquero, the two youngest of the group, thanks to the theater.

“They’re great actors, but they also have a certain way of being in the world. They both lost their mothers at a young age, and this orphan status gives them a special posture of humility and at the same time a great wisdom about life, which I relate to and have a lot of respect for both of them.”

On the other hand, Barbara Leni (La Nina de Fuego) and Irene Escolar (Official Contest) are two more famous actresses. “Their careers definitely give them a lot of life experience because we play so many different characters, we experience so many different things. And it was interesting to see them with two young girls who are really beginners in this profession, but already have much richer life experience. They have more wisdom and vital maturity in relation to life.

So I think it’s important, in this movie world where we’re so compared and in competition, to kind of neutralize that leveling and make their experience completely horizontal so that they’re all on the same level.”

Dialogue at the heart of the film

These life experiences, which give the film a special dimension, are precisely the followers of Screaming Truth, in which the actors honestly and excessively discuss death, motherhood or even the romantic relationships that they shine on the screen and offer to the audience.

“I’m convinced that sharing the experiences we’ve had with others, opening ourselves up, makes us better. Not only does it make us feel less alone, but I’m sure that even if I look stupid, even if I’m broken, it makes me feel better.

That’s what the relationship with the girls was all about in the movie and through the movie. It is the fact that you allow yourself to be ridiculed in this way among friends, you have such friends in front of whom you know how to laugh, you know how to say that you do not know that you do not know how to do or how to say the unsaid. I believe in this word, I believe in the healing and essential goodness of this word and that it makes us better.”

A passion for theater

Through Girls Are Well, Itsaso Arana also brings out with force and intensity her passion for theatre, which is at the heart of the film and its approach. “I dared to step into filmmaking because I was going to touch on issues that fascinate me. I gave my life to theater and cinema, these are the two sides of my creative life, so that was the foundation on which I built this film. He explains.

I know that representing theater in cinema is an extremely dangerous, if not impossible, mission. In spite of everything, if I dared to do it, it was because I knew very quickly that the theater would only be an excuse to show life experiences and common creativity, that is what interested me, this environment that this theater trained. was going to create”.

Discover Girls Are Well, a tender ode to sisterhood, sharing and life, in theaters today.