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Lucifer, by Gust Van den Berghe, Was Presented at the 12th FICM

Lucifer (2014), by Gus Van den Berghe, was presented in a special screening at the Cinépolis Morelia Centro, with the presence of the director and part of the film crew, on the 8^th day of activities of the 12^th FICM.

Gus Van de Berghe is a multidisciplinary artist from Belgium, who has been involved in various artistic areas, including dance, which he has explored in choreography and performances for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and with the musician Praga Khan. He graduated with a degree in audiovisual arts from the School of Audiovisual and Performing Arts RITS, Belgium, with his first experimental film Little Baby Jesus of Flandr (2010), with which he participated in the 12^th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight at the 63^rd Cannes Film Festival, France. A year later, Gus Van de Berghe participated in the same competition with Blue Bird (2011). These two films are part of a trilogy that end with Lucifer (2014), which participated in the 59^th Valladolid International Film Festival Seminci, Spain.

Lucifer was filmed in Angahuan, a Purépecha community in the municipality of Uruapan, in Michoacán, near the Paricutín volcano, where the town of San Juan Parangaricutiro was located before it was destroyed when the volcano erupted in 1943. The film stars Mexican actor Gabino Rodríguez and the inhabitants of the region, mostly non-actors, who accompanied the director in the special screening at the Cinépolis Morelia Centro. During the Q & A session, the participants said:

Gus Van den Berghe on his way of working in Lucifer:

“I began the film with a script but I left much to real life. In the beginning I have all my ideas, but at the same time I’m working with real people, with a real village, at a real location. I think there’s an exchange from all sides, because they also have their ideas. For example, if a man doesn’t want to leave his mountain, then we’ll go to his mountain, to his house.”

Gus Van den Berghe on his choice of filming in Mexico:

“Mexico is fantastic. When I saw its trees, its sky and its stones I asked myself, why not? This is part of a triptych, which is not local, it’s universal. The place, in that sense, is irrelevant. The three films that make up the triptych are located in different places and it works.”

Gus Van den Berghe on the future and his idea of cinema:

“The future of cinema is not me or the films. It is you, the public, when people go to see movies in the theater. That is the future of cinema. It’s not the technology but the theater. I want to create an audiovisual experience that can only be seen in the theater. It’s not something that happens in my head – but it happens there.”

Norma Pablo (who plays María in Lucifer) on her experience in the film:

“For me, it was a very rich experience. I lived in Angahuan for a month and half. I’m an actress and had to take the risk of working with a director like Gus, where there are no limits and you don’t know exactly where you’re going. I asked him about reading the script, I asked him for explanations to go deeper and he would say: ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen either, let’s do it.’ With him [Gus], there’s nothing in writing that can be touched, which is great as an actress – to work with people who are not actors, to try and enter that universe that is not mine and share that universe with everyone, with Gus and with the artistic world.”

Article by Alejandro M. Azpiri (@nosoyalexalejo)