12 · 14 · 23

Interview: LOST IN THE NIGHT, a Different Perspective on Disappearances

Gabriela Martínez

Translator, Emilio Cervantes

Lost in the Night, the most recent feature film by director Amat Escalante, premieres in more than 150 Mexican movie screens this December 14th, after it was presented at the 21st Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) and got a standing ovation by the audience at the 76° Cannes Film Festival.

The film follows the story of Emiliano (Juan Daniel García Treviño), a young man that lives in a mining town in Guanajuato, who is in search of those responsible for the disappearance of his mother, teacher and activist who protested against an international mining company. Driven by a deep sense of justice due to the lack of help from the police and the judicial system, Emiliano founds a clue that leads him to getting involved with the Aldama family, that includes the famous and polemic artist Rigoberto Duplas (Fernando Bonilla), his wife Carmen Aldama (Bárbara Mori), and Mónica (Ester Expósito), their influencer daughter.

Together with his girlfriend Jazmín (María Fernanda Osio), Emiliano starts working at the Aldama´s house, which allows him to discover the secrets that surround this eccentric family.

According to the director at a press conference, the idea that led to the creation of this screenplay, written along with his brother Martín Escalante during the COVID-19 pandemic, came from his immediate context in Guanajuato.

The FICM had the opportunity of talking with Amat Escalante, actor Fernando Bonilla, and actress María Fernanda Osio, who told us about the making of the film.

FICM: Amat, how was the process of writing this story, considering that you address several themes throughout the film, including violence and disappearances, both of which are recurring themes in Mexican cinema in recent years, without falling into clichés?

Amat Escalante: I wrote it with Martín, my brother, just as the pandemic began. In that period of time, I was reading tons of books and listening a lot, something I was not used to doing that often. I had tried, though it was difficult and up to that moment I made it, I succeeded. I read a lot of classic novels and I wanted to approach a little bit to those universal conflicts, somehow classical, that deal with moral dilemmas and guilt.

I live in Guanajuato, I wrote there and it inspires me so much. The land, the people and what happens there. The subject of the disappearances is something that is happening, it is a frequent subject as groups of women search for their relatives every day, etc. I didn't want to make a film just about that, because the subject is not something I choose from the beginning, it is rather something that I observe and that develops itself as the production goes. For some reason, I didn't focus so much on those groups, either visually or narratively, although I met people that were involved in the search for the ones who disappeared, including journalists.

Daniela Rea, Irapuato-born filmmaker, documentalist, journalist and writer, helped me as an advisor and as someone to discuss things about the script several years ago, even before I started writing the film, when I became interested in these particular topics. She came to the set. I highly recommend getting to know her as a filmmaker and she also has made some documentaries that have been part of the Morelia International Film Festival (Eternity Never Surrendered, 2017). Like me, she is from Guanajuato and I think that is why I felt comfortable listening to her thoughts and letting her tell me if I was heading towards some risky places in terms of what is being shown and what is not. I decided not to show in depth, for example, those groups of women who search for their relatives, because I didn't want to only show them superficially, I needed another way to go beyond that. For example, they are represented by Emiliano's sister, who is one of them, but I am not going to actually see her in action.

I am a cinephile, I really like horror films, as well as thrillers. Here, I tried to tell a story of these very relatable subjects in my life and in the life of many Mexicans, whether it is because it has affected us directly or just because we are aware of it.

As always, it took me some time. I was thinking about it, and my way of working is sometimes a bit volatile, chaotic. From several angles, isn't it? With the casting, with everything, because I like not having things so clear on purpose to see if there's something new that can inspire me. Sometimes it makes certain processes more complicated, including shooting.

I was lucky enough to have such committed and present actors like Fernando, Bárbara, Esther, Mafer, Juan, and Daniel. They had such trust in what we were doing and I trusted in them. I think that's what really helped solidify the film.

FICM: María Fernanda, I read an interview you had at the Guanajuato Festival where you mentioned that the casting process was long. At any moment, did you imagine you were going to be selected for the role and that you would go to the Cannes Film Festival?

María Fernanda Osio: Actually I never imagined it. I knew that the possibility of the film getting there existed and at some point I dreamt about it, but I thought I wouldn't go with them. When it happened, I was very happy. I congratulated Amat, and after that he told me that we were all going to go. I cried a lot from happiness and I got so happy, I was really excited. I was also really nervous, because I didn't have a passport and didn't know what to do. It was a really cute and very surreal experience.

The casting process for me was actually really fast. I mean, I had to wait a long time to see the movie. I was rather anxious to see the final product, to watch my performance actually. I was so satisfied when I watched it. I was really excited to be a part of all of it.

It was a great experience watching how the Cannes audience reacted to it, because it wasn't a domestic audience, so the impressions were very different. I don't remember if it was the field scene or another one, but it was a a very disturbing scene, very dark, it was not exactly a funny scene, but the audience laughed, something that didn't happen in Mexico. It is very different and I am very curious about that.

FICM: How did you prepare for the character?

MFO: I think I took a lot from myself, I let it be in a way. Our acting coach helped us a lot, I love her very much and she always made me and Dani feel close to each other, because we were going to share many scenes in the film as we were boyfriend and girlfriend. There was a lot of complicity between him and me; it's something we worked a lot with her and also with each other, we joked, we did exercises to recognize each other physically.

Personally, I think I share a lot with Jazmín, many affinities with her: I am very empathetic, I care about others. I think she and I share that.

FICM: Fernando, in my opinion, your character is a sort of criticism towards the privileged classes who, from their position, suddenly exploit, so to speak, the experiences of others. How was your process to develop the character of Rigoberto?

Fernando Bonilla: It was a very intense and complex process. There was a lot of work. We built a lot of background to it. We explored, analized and improvised a lot. I built a lot of the character by letting myself be influenced by my colleagues, specifically by Bárbara Mori, who plays Carmen, and Juan Daniel García Treviño, who plays Emiliano.

I knew that the character has very contrasting emotions, he's manic and depressive, he has very emotional outbursts and then some deeply sad ones; that was intimidating acting-wise. I think we explored various paths with Amat, and I particularly encouraged a lot of impulses. Beyond the specific work, off set, out of rehearsals, I practiced a lot a more immediate reaction to certain situations.

The character is deeply invested in unsettling the people he is talking to, in provoking that, that's his most comfortable place and I tried to practice it, so that's how I behaved at meals and social events. I think that every time you build a character, you unveil things that you didn't know about yourself, and that's what happened.

Rigo is a very contradictory guy, he is a guy with a tremendous sense of guilt, isn't he? I think he materializes a lot of white guilt and I think that at the same time he finds legitimate means for his artistic creation. That is something I built: embrace his art as honest to contrast this with his darker choices perhaps motivated by ambition. He is also violent, competitive and very self-aware of his public figure status, who does not avoid this condemnation of creating in the midst of this kind of market and the need to sell himself, the need to climb, the need to dominate. These two forces end up crushing him. This clash causes him a very intense shock from which he can't get up.

I also really like the idea of him being a bad antagonist. Because he should exist to oppose the objectives of the protagonist, that is always how it is, but Rigoberto, from his guilt, from his collapse, pretends to put himself as a catalyst of the protagonist's objective. Thus, he kind of loses that tone and that allows us to see the real antagonist of the film, which is the economic and political system that drives people to very desperate situations, such as violence, for which we cannot hold individuals responsible. Violence is systemic.

AE: When we got to Guanajuato to work, I was actually a bit surprised, well, I was caught off guard because Fernando was being Rigoberto outside of work hours. I mean, he was like a lighter version of Rigoberto, but he was out there and I had to understand him because Fernando is nothing like that. I wasn't used to that.

FB: And I'm not like that as an actor either, I don't usually work like that with every character, but I felt that the most effective way to put myself in Rigoberto's shoes was to really do it. I like that every process demands different things from you.