His first feature film, “No one knows I’m hereIt premiered last week directly on Netflix and is already among the three most viewed movies in Chile.
At 36 years old, Gaspar Antillo Live the experience of debuting in the big leagues of international cinema with this story with a lot of local flavor, shot in beautiful locations in Puerto Octay, on the shores of Lake Llanquihue, and an American protagonist with Chilean blood, Jorge Garcia.
There, between leafy trees and sheepskin tanneries, with the only company of his uncle (Luis Gnecco), lives Memo (Jorge García), a corpulent and disheveled character who barely speaks and often loses patience. Memo has no friends and takes refuge in the solitude of the place. What are you running from? That secret will be the axis of this intimate film, which enters Memo’s life on tiptoe, just as he, stealthily, slips into the houses of his neighbors.
Gaspar Antillo, who studied at the Chilean Film School and he directed shorts and recorded commercials before debuting in the feature film, he wanted to tell the story of “a fractured character, who carries a past that has led him to live in the present as an outsider. In that past there is also a latent desire, which has to do with music, and which for him is also a wound. That was the initial premise, from which the other characters were entering ”.
Does this argument have to do with any experience of yours?
(R): No, I think the idea that interested me was loneliness. The main thing is to feel alone and bring trauma that comes from childhood, not because something like this has happened to me, but because I was interested in exploring that world.
And you found an actor who has a physique that fits Memo’s very well, because it is understood that a character who lives like this, hidden, has developed overweight and is very sullen. How did you come to contact Jorge García?
(R): Jorge came later. I didn’t think about him when I was writing the script, but Jorge has qualities that have to do, in addition to acting, with the talent he has for singing. There were a couple of videos of him hanging around, where he could be heard singing, and when we saw them, they clicked on us. So we arranged some aspects of the story to allow Jorge to participate.
Then Jorge García ended up fitting perfectly with Memo …
(R): Sure, and there is the voice, which is like his secret weapon, and when it comes out, one understands that, despite the violence or rage contained, there is sensitivity within the character. It is a secret that he has and that few can perceive it; in fact, Marta is the only one who perceives that hidden talent.
And how did Jorge García get involved in the film?
(R): We sent him the script and we got a fairly quick response from him, where he said he would be delighted to make the movie. After that, we had long conversations on repeated occasions, and he was very supportive, a “team player”, so to speak. He was super open to try ideas, to experiment, he was very important in the previous work and in the final result of the film.
In the film a criticism slides towards television, or towards the effects of media popularity.
(R): More than a criticism of TV, I think the film has to do with what happens today with the images. The images are not currently only on television; They are on the cell phone cameras, when we take a selfie and send it, when we record ourselves on the street or on the beach. It has to do with the images of us that are perpetuated somewhere.
That’s where that video comes in that Memo records very intimately with Marta (Millaray Lobos) and that triggers all the conflict in the film.
(R): And there is the lens that observes Memo in the distance, and that could be a journalist’s camera, a casting camera or someone’s cell phone. They are the images that we record and spread of ourselves, which is something that has become very normal today.
The locations of the film in Puerto Octay are very attractive and contribute to the development of the story. Did you think about those places from the beginning?
(R): My idea was for the film to take place in a remote location in the south. Why there? Because I wanted Memo not to hide in a desert place, but for the foliage of trees and plants to also serve as a refuge. And looking for locations, this sprig that exists just in front of Puerto Octay, on Lake Llanquihue, appeared, which had the perfect characteristics. There was the workshop, there was the pier, and the town is in front, so that we are in a remote place but there is life around.
Among the technical values, the photography of Sergio Armstrong stands out, who plays a lot to hide faces. How did you handle that visual aspect?
(R): Because the place is so eye-catching and everything is so bright, we wanted there to be a mystery and not everything to be so obvious. The film has the tone of a story and we wanted the image to have a certain darkness about the things that are not said and those that are not told, both narratively and cinematographically.
Gaspar, what is the most challenging thing about making a first feature film?
(R): The uncertainty of doing something the first time. Imagine all that one can think of before doing it, and you face different scenarios, if this is going to work or not; And then, when we got to film, everything went well, because all the production team and the actors were very united in the sense of the film that we wanted to make. It was a 24-day shoot, very quick, because we were all on it.
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