EL MAL AJENO
EEN FILM VAN
OSKAR SANTOS
WILD BUNCH HAARLEMMERDIJK 159 - 1013 KH – AMSTERDAM WWW.WILDBUNCH.NL
THE PUBLICITY COMPANY [email protected] EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
PROJECT SUMMARY
Een productie van MOD PRODUCCIONES, HIMENÓPTERO, TELECINCO CINEMA Taal SPAANS Internationale titel FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS Lengte 107 minuten Genre DRAMA Land van herkomst SPANJE Filmmaker OSKAR SANTOS Hoofdrollen EDUARDO NORIEGA, BELÉN RUEDA, ANGIE CEPEDA Release datum 18 NOVEMBER 2010 Website WWW.ELMALAJENO.COM Kijkwijzer
SYNOPSIS Diego is als arts zo gewend aan het omgaan met extreme situaties dat hij immuun is geworden voor de pijn van anderen. Als een van zijn patiënten, Sara, zelfmoord probeert te plegen, wijst haar partner een beschuldigende vinger naar Diego. Hij houdt de arts direct verantwoordelijk. Bij een gespannen confrontatie tussen de twee krijgt Diego een pistool op zich gericht. Uren later herinnert hij zich slechts het geluid van een schot en voelt hij meer dan alleen een kogel.
CAST DIEGO Eduardo Noriega ISABEL Belén Rueda SARA Angie Cepeda PILAR Cristina Plazas AINHOA Clara Lago JUANJO Marcel Borrás ARMAND Carlos Leal CARLOS Luis Callejo VICENTE José Ángel Egido HÉCTOR Chema Ruiz TARIQ Dritan Biba
CREW DIRECTOR Oskar Santos SCREENPLAY Daniel Sánchez Arévalo PRODUCERS Fernando Bovaira, Alejandro Amenábar, Álvaro Augustin EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Simón de Santiago, Javier Ugarte LINE PRODUCER Emiliano Otegui D.O.P. Josu Inchaustegui PRODUCTION DESIGNER Isabel Viñuales MUSIC Fernando Velázquez SOUND DESIGNER Ricardo Steinberg EDITOR Carlos Agulló COSTUME DESIGNER Tatiana Hernández CASTING DIRECTOR Luis San Narciso MAKE UP DESIGNER Ana López Puigcerver HAIR DESIGNER Mara Collazo
EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR PRESENTS FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS.
“FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS is a story that stimulates. The characters and performances are treated in a naturalistic way, it plays with everyday routine –typical in other works by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo-, and also incorporates a spiritual element. That combination of normal characters in paranormal situations is very interesting.”
“I’ve started to involve myself more in the production process, but I’ve never felt the need to produce other people because I think that figure already exists and other people are doing just fine. In this case there was a great screenplay and a very talented director with an excellent work ethic. More than serve as a producer what I’ve tried to do is help. Perhaps to be sort of a mentor.”
“There’s something pure about Eduardo Noriega, as a human being as well. I think that helps people connect with his character. People will be surprised, not only by his acting, but also by such a genuinely touching performance. I was moved by Eduardo playing an anaesthetized character who finally manages to gain access to his own emotions.”
“Belén Rueda has freshness and clarity. We knew she could get intouch with painful side of her character. The idea was to find the perfect soul for each character and not be guided by whether they were known actors or not. What mattered most was truthfulness. I think we did something similar in The Sea Inside, where we sought a lot of truth for each character.”
“FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS is a film that deals with emotions very close to home. It’s a film about pain. Not only physical pain, but also emotional pain. It’s a film that takes place in a hospital with terminally ill patients who have to face the pain of losing something, their condition worsening, etc. Basically it’s a very naturalistic melodrama with an element of fantasy.”
INTERVIEW EDUARDO NORIEGA.
Every character in FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS carries a specific weight in the story, it’s a choral film in which everything revolves around Diego. How would you describe the main character?
Diego is lethargic at the outset. He’s working in the pain unit and is therefore surrounded by pain and death, rarely are his patients ever discharged. His journey throughout the film is towards increased sensibility. Little by little he removes the layers of armor he’s been wearing all these years and starts to see sickness, patients and his loved ones in another light. He experiences an internal revolution from insensitivity to being able to put the lives of others before his own. His development as a character is extreme, he changes drastically throughout the course of the film and it’s something that occurs inside him, not on the surface.
What do Diego and Isabel, Belén Rueda’s character, have in common?
Isabel and Diego are connected: by pain, by sickness... for different reasons. And they aren’t necessarily aware of what the other one is going through. Isabel doesn’t know the details about what’s happening to Diego but she is able to detect his pain. They’re fragile souls that join together to offer each other help, affection... almost instinctively. They identify with each other, they’re drawn to each other, they share something familiar.
While Diego is in the midst of a painful and difficult moment in his life, there are funny moments as well. What is the reason for this?
EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
A movie like this without moments of humor would be impossible to swallow. It would be unbearable. In fact, the first sequence of the film is a tremendous declaration of intent. There are characters like my daughter, my father, Juanjo or Carlos who bring those tiny drops of humor that make the more intense scenes possible. They make you smile and distract you for a moment. Daniel, the writer, is particularly good at that. He loosens things up, and that’s good for the audience.
Diego is the main character but the other characters are essential to understanding him. From an acting standpoint, what was the key to weaving all those stories together?
It occurred to Oskar to have a rehearsal with nine or ten of the main actors. It was the Saturday before we started shooting. We were seated at a table and we’d get up in pairs, or whoever’s turn it was. It was just an office with folding chairs but we managed to make it through the entire movie: the car, the accident, the rain, if somebody died we could see the pain left behind... it was quite a ride, unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It also gave me a global sense of the movie’s tone. It made all the performances coherent. It made everyone aware of the film we were making and put us all on the same page, feeding off the same ideas, the tools that came before, to establish a code between director and actors.
What sticks out in your mind about working with a first-time director like Oskar?
Oskar has no experience shooting feature films but he’s very experienced in the world of film. He’s been on plenty of sets. He’s a movie buff and movies are his life. Oskar devotes everything to the project, and that’s wonderful because it’s contagious. There’s a special complicity because he’s constantly asking other people for advice, for suggestions, for help. You’re considered an experienced actor and he values your opinion, your criteria, and it makes you feel closer to the process. That enthusiasm is very important. But most of all he’s just crazy, crazy, crazy about filming.
FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS isn’t an easy film to define, it combines very different elements: emotion, suspense... How would you describe it to moviegoers?
Yeah, being a thriller gives it structure. But it’s a thriller with fantastic elements and it’s also a melodrama. It even has elements of tragedy, of Greek tragedy, where the main character has to make a crucial decision that jeopardizes his own life and that of those around him. I think it’s hard to categorize as a film, which is interesting. When you see it the story grabs you, the suspense is so visually powerful and exciting that it keeps you constantly guessing what will happen next.
REALITY FROM THE OTHER SIDE.
Based on material that will impact audiences everywhere, FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS takes its hero to the uncharted territories of Spanish cinema.
“The main character in FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS receives a gift. I suppose that depending on what kind of person you are, either it comes with a responsibility or it doesn’t. There have to be principles in everything. If you’re capable of doing something that special, you have to use it well. As is also evident in Agora—, it’s very easy to destroy things. Nevertheless, it’s wonderful to build on. That’s why I think this character possesses a wonderful gift,” points out Alejandro Amenábar.
“The film has a fantastic element, but it addresses very dramatic material. We wanted to give the characters body and for the supernatural element not to outweigh the human drama. Daniel was able to combine those two genres very well, giving depth to the characters and the relationships EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos between them. He was also able to inject it with something that’s very important to such an intense story: humor,” says Fernando Bovaira.
“The director reveals what’s happening to the characters and to the audience at the same time. It’s so real it’s more like poetry than fantasy. In this case we’re talking about people and emotions but I think Oskar did such a good job of integrating the real into the supernatural that the result is completely believable. This is a strange, special, film,” remarks Belén Rueda.
Starring Eduardo Noriega as Diego, a specialist in palliative care trapped in a moment of crisis, FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS simultaneously feeds off the experiences of a variety of characters who revolve (some without knowing it) around an inexplicable element. Three women: Isabel (Belén Rueda), Sara (Angie Cepeda) and Pilar (Cristina Plazas), also experience similar moments of estrangement from their own lives. Diego’s daughter Ainhoa (Clara Lago), Juanjo, a young doctor (Marcel Borrás) and Carlos, a very special patient (Luis Callejo), offer him the clarity he needs to reconnect to reality.
“Diego comes into contact with his power and from there on the course he takes, what he learns from that power, reconnects him with his own emotions: allowing him to feel again. And feeling again means both suffering and having a ball. He goes from being someone completely insensitive who’s alien to suffering and pleasure, to someone who experiences suffering and pleasure to the fullest,” affirms Daniel Sánchez Arévalo.
“Daniel is one of our country’s most talented writer-filmmakers. DarkBlueAlmostBlack, Gordos and now FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS are three clear examples of Daniel’s ability to write about emotions. The theme of this movie carries great weight: the dilemma of having to choose between saving lives or having to sacrifice a loved one. FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS offers a majestic solution thanks to Daniel’s audacity.” Álvaro Augustín.
“The characters in this story are good, strong people. But almost every one of them has a moment of weakness which makes their character noble, because if people were always nice to each other all the time life would be awful. They’re as brave as they come,” comments Cristina Plazas.
“What happens to Diego opens connections between the other characters. People put up barriers around themselves so that things won’t affect them: unconsciously, but it happens every day. There’s a downside to that, because you stop feeling pain but you also stop feeling the good things. It’s like being 50% alive. Diego shows us why that attitude is risky: you end up empty inside. Pain is part of life, part of human experience, and its effect is not always negative. I think that’s intriguing to see on the big screen. Though I was lucky, my character is exactly the opposite, she brings light to the story,” explains Clara Lago.
“Sara uses her gift to protect herself from pain. Without the gift her life would be torture: resentment, spite, hatred for everything that ever has happened to her. The gift is what finally allows her to make sense of it all. Everything happened for a reason and she has been sent on a mission. The gift is a lifetime commitment,” claims Angie Cepeda.
“I think this story is in some ways is like a fairy tale. In any story where you have a special ability or some sort of legendary gift, there’s always a downside. If I give you this, you have to do this other thing. Fairy tales have often referred to the price one pays,” says Eduardo Noriega.
“Diego has killed his own zest for life and is living with a sense of numbness. Life puts him in a situation where his heart will once again beat with great intensity. He must face situations he’s been EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos insensitive to in the past. His dilemma is truly overwhelming and he has no choice but to involve himself emotionally because those feelings had been left partially turned off,” says Fernando Bovaira.
INTERVIEW OSKAR SANTOS.
On paper, Diego and Eduardo Noriega don’t seem to have very much in common. When did you first realize he was the right actor?
We had a lot of doubts about the leading role. We were looking for someone between 40 and 45 years old, with a certain gallantry. Daniel had thought of Belén while writing the script, Fernando agreed with him and was even the one who proposed Eduardo for the part of Diego. I didn’t see it. And Eduardo didn’t see it either. He was six or seven years younger than the character at the time and had a very young looking physique. We weren’t sure he’d be able to pull off a character in his forties, a man with more life behind him. We decided to do a make-up test, seeking an integrated look so people wouldn’t be seeing Eduardo Noriega in make-up the whole time. The audience has to feel that the character is real. The test went wonderfully. And Eduardo did an amazing job in this film. When we started rehearsing, he immediately went along with my suggestion to go with the flow and improvise more, and he ended up doing some mind-boggling exercises in improvisation. We all followed our little path to believing it would work.
In their portrayals of Diego, Isabel and Sara, your cast gives the story intense emotion and exhilarating flashes of humor. Did you feel comfortable directing actors in such different ranges?
The wonderful thing about working with Daniel is that apart from great story structure and knowing how to mix genres, he adds comedy which is essential in a film as dramatic as this one. Certain things were lost in the cutting room in the interest of narrative balance. But he always builds characters who bring charm, light to the film. In this case Clara, Marcel, Cristina, Egido and Callejo. Ainhoa and Juanjo had a double task: to give body and conflict to their own characters, and to humanize Diego. The day before we started shooting I proposed not a theaterstyle dress rehearsal, but a general run- through where they could be actors and also watch their counterparts perform scenes from the screenplay as well as some improvised ones. It created an energy between us that made us feel like we were part of a group, that each character was an important piece of a whole. We went through 70% of the script, it went great, they had a blast, and when we had lunch after they talked about their characters and about the story as a whole. It went so well that I’d like to do it again in future films.
We don’t find very many Spanish films that have been put together as well as FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS. Is it the mix of experience and fresh talent?
Each element brings a series of things along with it. For example, the performances are very natural. I asked the actors to be truthful. But at moments of a particular genre, they know how to give it the nuance it needs. Visually speaking (scenery, photography, wardrobe...) we needed a balance. I felt that if we made an overly stylistic film it wouldn’t work, the performances would clash, like in a picture with a single color scheme (that stuff in modern films that I love but didn’t consider necessary in this case), but we also had to avoid being too naturalistic. Movies are movies and real life is real life. I know it’s difficult, but it’s something that was in the script: a fantasy told from a realistic point of view, something that happens to normal people who tend to react the same way any of us would. Daniel does a great job with that, he knows how to bring the character down to reality.
EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
How did FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS first come about?
This film tries to enter the chiaroscuro or shadow of human nature, this idea they’re selling us about being a part of the whole world. Human beings are individuals and worry above all else about their own lives and those of a reduced group of people. This is human. I always use the same example when I explain this film: I like watching the news while I eat. It isn’t always easy because any channel you turn on portrays the world as a pretty terrible place (war, hunger, suffering...) but I somehow manage to keep eating. But if the phone were to suddenly ring and something awful were happening to a member of my own family, I would automatically stop eating. This may sound absurd but it explains what human beings are made of. Nobody wishes ill upon anybody else. Seeing all those people suffer on television is hard but it doesn’t take away your appetite; nevertheless, when tragedy strikes within our own circle, our lives stop cold. To deny that is to deny human nature. Why are we like this? Our loved ones mean the world to us. Other people are other people.
Do you think audiences will identify with the dilemma Diego must face?
I feel more like I’m a member of the audience than a director. And I don’t like being preached at or films with messages, I like being exposed to new ideas. Alejandro said it in one of his films: I look for films that are capable of asking questions, not films with answers. Film is interactive and I want a movie to give me room to apply my own way of thinking. FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS poses a very simple question to the audience. The film develops that question in a very suggestive way: Can one live without caring about anybody else in particular? Thinking that nobody’s any more important than anyone else? We’re defined by a very small group of people... our loved ones, who shape us as people. That’s Diego’s dilemma, and the one faced by other characters in the film. Can I go on living without caring about anyone else?
CAST
EDUARDO NORIEGA – DIEGO Eduardo Noriega moved to Madrid to study at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in 1992, and it was right around then that he started collaborating in different short films with directors like Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil. Stories from the Kronen (1994), by Montxo Armendáriz, marked his debut in a feature film. Since then he has worked with the most prestigious Spanish and international directors and has been nominated for numerous awards in Spain and in several other countries.
Agnosia, Eugenio Mira Little Indi, Marc Recha Vantage Point, Peter Travis Transsiberian, Brad Anderson Alatriste, Agustín Díaz Yanes Wolf, Miguel Courtois Open your Eyes, Alejandro Amenábar Thesis, Alejandro Amenábar
BELÉN RUEDA- ISABEL Belén Rueda started her career as a television host and actress. In 2004 she got her first role for the big screen in Alejandro Amenábar’s The Sea Inside, for which she won a Goya for Best Actress and many other honors. In 2007 she starred in The Orphanage, a huge box office hit, for which she was also received warmly by the international press.
EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
Los ojos de Julia, Guillem Morales 8 Dates, Peris Romano and Rodrigo Sorogoyen The Orphanage, José Antonio Bayona The Sea Inside, Alejandro Amenábar
ANGIE CEPEDA – SARA After studying acting in her native Colombia, Angie Cepeda began working in show business in famous internationally-distributed soap operas. In 1996 she made the jump to the big screen in Sergio Cabrera’s Ilona Arrives with the Rain. Since then she has made films in Argentina, Peru, Italy and the United States. She has been living between Spain and Los Angeles since 2004.
Una hora más en Canarias, David Serrano Love in the Time of Cholera, Mike Newell The Hidden, Antonio Hernández Captain Pantoja and the Special Services, Francisco J. Lombardi Los protegidos (TV) Vientos de agua (TV)
CREW
OSKAR SANTOS – DIRECTOR Oskar Santos (Bilbao, 1972) studied Audiovisual Communication at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. In 2000 he wrote, produced and directed the short film “Torre, which won awards at several international festivals. In 2002 he directed two episodes of the series Urban Myth Chillers, produced by Universal TV (UK) and GTV (France). In 2004 he directed his second short film, El Soñador, and a feature-length documentary, A Trip to The Sea Inside, about the making of Alejandro Amenábar’s Oscar®-winning film, The Sea Inside.
MOD PRODUCCIONES- PRODUCTION COMPANY MOD PRODUCCIONES is a recently-created audiovisual production company. At this time the company is involved in its first three projects, which are in different phases of production: AGORA, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, was released in Spain in October and has become the highest- grossing Spanish film of 2009. It has been nominated for 13 Goya awards. BIUTIFUL, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, starring Javier Bardem, was shot in Barcelona. Currently in post-production. FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, directed by Oskar Santos. Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival, Panorama Special Section.
HIMENÓPTERO - PRODUCTION COMPANY Created in 1995 by Alejandro Amenábar to produce his own short films, the company’s first feature film production was The Sea Inside (2004), directed by Alejandro Amenábar, which later won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Its next production was Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, the highestgrossing Spanish film of 2009. Currently in the process of releasing FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, Oskar Santos’ first feature film, also produced by Mod Producciones and Telecinco Cinema.
TELECINCO CINEMA - PRODUCTION COMPANY Telecinco Cinema set records at the box office in 2009 with films of different genres acclaimed by critics and audiences alike - Agora, Cell 211 and Spanish Movie- leading the international market after occupying first, third and fifth place at the Spanish box office, respectively. The quality of these films has earned Telecinco’s film affiliate 32 Goya Award nominations, the most prestigious honor in Spain, making it the production company with the most nominations. The films share a page in EL MAL AJENO – Oskar Santos
Spanish film history alongside other highly successful Telecinco productions like Pan’s Labyrinth, Alatriste, The Orphanage and The Oxford Murders, the highest grossing films of 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Along with the recent release of Hierro, Gabe Ibáñez’ first film starring Elena Anaya, Telecinco Cinema will release two other projects by first-time directors in 2010 -For the Good of Others directed by Oskar Santos and Verbo, directed by Eduardo Chapero Jackson, starring Alba García, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Verónica Echegui- as well as Agnosia, Eugenio Mira’s thriller starring Eduardo Noriega, Bárbara Goenaga and Félix Gómez; La daga de Rasputín, Jesús Bonilla’s comedy starring Antonio Resines and Antonio Molero and Rabia, a drama directed by Sebastián Cordero and produced by Guillermo del Toro.