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Emiliano Rocha Minter on Mexico’s Mix of Sex and Death, ‘J.J. the Master’ and How To Make a First Feature

Could Emiliano Rocha Minter, whose “We Are the Flesh” makes its Mexican premiere at this week’s Morelia Festival, be a standard bearer for a new generation of Mexican directors?

The last two waves have been shaped by both their leading figures and industry context. A first, that of the Tres Amigos, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, bowed in the 1990s when the Mexican industry was in crisis. They had to look abroad to develop their careers. The second, kick-started by Carlos Reygadas’ “Japan” in 2002, has risen on the back of Mexico’s industry build and foreign festival recognition. A third, if it ever exists, may be defined by its style and its liberties.

World premiering at the 2016 Rotterdam Fest, and seemingly set at its get-go in some kind of starved, ruinous post-Apocalypse world, the drama is lead produced by Julio Chavezmontes production-distribution company Piano with Moises Cosio’s Detalle Films. It has an ageing satyr-man offer food to a teen sister (Maria Evoli) and brother (Diego Gamaliel) if they transform his building into a womb-like cave. He then pressures them to abandon any inhibition and indulge in acts of incest, bloodlust, rape, murder, onanism and cannibalism.

Rocha Minter’s story-boarded “We Are the Flesh.” The camera acts at times an invisible character, moving independently of the characters. He uses a steady zoom, a near retro effect these days in cinema, and not just to capture a character. Camera movements are not always necessary. Free-floating, the film echoes at times Spaghetti westerns (the zoom), plus post-apocalyptic genre, Pasolini and Andrei Zulawski.

But some things, for the good, do not change in Mexico. Citing the Tres Amigos, Gael Garcia Bernal spoke in Morelia at a press conference last week about a sense of “brotherhood” in Mexican cinema, how filmmakers support, advises and promote each other. “We Are the Flesh” was co-produced by Reygadas. It won public endorsements from Cuaron and Iñarritu who told Mexican newspaper Reforma that “We Are the Flesh” “is a very personal, very powerful film that deeply impressed me. Emiliano Rocha is part of a new generation [of filmmakers] with a potent talent and voice.”

Rocha Minter is represented by the Paradigm Talent Agency. Variety talked to him about his notable debut.

There’s a sense, having seen your shorts, such as “Inside,” that your “We Are the Flesh” develops themes that permeate your whole work: Sex, death. Were these the starting point for “We Are the Flesh”?

I really wanted to make a feature. I thought: ‘If you’re going to do a first feature you have to make it viable.’ I’d always imagined a film with few characters, in one location. I didn’t want to spend fifteen years trying to get an absurd amount of money. So make it small, make it enclosed. Also, I was very interested in the concept of the cave, the return to animality, a cave that’s not only the uterus but someone’s skull. And to create characters that could stop being “characters,” returning to a much more primal state. I was reading Georges Bataille at the time. Also, I wanted a film where body performance would take over. Not a film full of dialogues but with the action taking place within the body of the characters. I followed these rules. The rest of the film came relatively easy.

The film shows humanity, for better or worse, what drives people…

The movie had to be an affirmation of life, in all the senses, without fear or judgement, reaching some point between the terrible and the strange, a return to a moment where there aren’t so many moral questions. A portrait of human beings, their violence, sexuality, their comedy.

Most of the film seems set in a kind of post-apocalypse world. But that turns out to be modern-day Mexico.

Yes, in a way it shows what it’s like to live in Mexico, that is ‘ and has always been – an almost post-apocalyptic place. Where there’s so much madness. One Mexican newspaper that has a print run of millions always shows “the corpse of the week”, a kid who has been decapitated, for example. On the very same page, there’s a picture of a naked woman! That’s the idea of Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess of life and death. We’ve always been a place where life and death have mixed in an exuberant fashion.

The film’s finance came from tax breaks?

The financing came from risk capital, private investment and from the Imcine Mexican Film Institute, through its Foprocine finance line. And then when we had the film shot, we needed money for the post-production, so the Mexican film institute supported us. But mainly it was risk capital and investment.

Overall the acting is one of the highlights of the film, especially María Evoli’s work. How did you work with the actors to get the film’s brutal honesty and nudity?

For me, the key concerning the actors was the casting process. It didn’t matter so much how good they were but how willing they were to join the adventure. In the end, that’s what’s most important: Have people that believe in what you’re going to do. You have to excite them, that gives them certainty. Before the shoot, we did a workshop that wasn’t exactly an acting workshop but afterwards I felt we were an army. I, María, Noé Hernandez, I felt that we could go rob a bank, grab three rifles and start the revolution. We did everything you can imagine in that workshop to throw down the walls that we had about nudity. The first reading they did completely naked, once again to break any barrier that the actors could have. While shooting I didn’t let them watch the display, I didn’t want them to start thinking of how they were looking.

The credits thank a wide range of names, including J. J. Abrams which was a bit of a surprise.

J.J the Master! I remember being 14 and watching “Lost.” I love this idea of a mysterious island, one mystery leading to another. I certainly feel we live in a very mysterious life. “Lost” was so powerful.

Talking of influences, are they people with whom you identify?

Filmmakers? The director that has impacted me the most lately is Andrei Zulawski, may he rest in peace. A great influence, a cinema that changed me because it’s half way between art cinema and genre and and has an incredible power in film language and the level of the performances. Each of his films is a cinema masterclass. Luckily I saw his films before doing “WE Are the Flesh.” They opened up a whole spectrum of thoughts, of camera movements, of acting performances. Isabel Adjani with whom he did “Possession” was absolutely brilliant.

And in literature?

Georges Bataille, I love his novels. I read a lot the Count of Lautremont: He is incredibly funny. Mexico’s José Agustín, he has a wonderful novel called “Grave” that he wrote when he was eighteen.

And how did Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu get to see your movie?

Alfonso and Alejandro saw the film because they are friends of Carlos. I did the post-production in a studio that Carlos has in Mexico, in the middle of the mountains. It’s really a great place to work. There’s nothing more than mountains, color correction and woods. Carlos liked the movie and has supported it, so he sent it to his friends who have been incredibly warm and supportive.

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