Antonio CuadriOblate women break people's stereotypes".What is a cloistered nun doing locked up in a monastery all her life? Does the contemplative life make sense in this world? Are people who choose this kind of life rare? Do they flee or are they afraid of the world?
These are some of the issues that appear in today's collective imagination when talking about cloistered life. However, as Santos Blanco, director of this feature film, points out, "free, freedom, is perhaps the word that is repeated most often in the documentary".
For Blanco, Free has been his first film. Blanco, owner of Variopinto productionshas worked mainly in the field of advertising in the last 12 years, although he had made some short documentaries: "Seven years ago we made a short documentary with a medical NGO that helped in Africa and about four years ago I co-directed, with a partner, a documentary about a nomadic family in Mexico... But I had not made any film of this kind, spiritual, Christian".
I knew nothing about the contemplative life
"It was a surprise how the project came to us," describes the director. It all started during the hardest time of the confinement imposed by Covid. In those days, Borja Barraganone of the producers called Santos. Barragán had received, at the time, a request for assistance from the Declausura Foundation because there were convents and monasteries that did not even have money to eat. "I knew nothing about cloistered life, nothing and besides we were locked up...", recalls Santos, "at that moment I got in touch with Lucía González-Barandiarán and we devised a communication campaign to get donations for the monasteries. It was a success.
Once he was back to normal life, Santos Blanco, together with the Declausura Foundation, carried out two campaigns to raise awareness of cloistered life and help monastic life. "There I began to know, in person, the life of the cloistered monks and nuns and I hallucinated," says Santos.
"In those moments I came across this phrase of Pope Francis: "As a sailor on the high seas needs a lighthouse to show him the way to port, so the world needs you. Be lighthouses, for those near and above all for those far away. Be torches that accompany the journey of men and women in the dark night of time" (Apostolic Constitution of Pope Francis, "The world needs you. Vultum Dei Quaerere on the feminine contemplative life, n6) The Pope puts them on the level of beacons, of referents! At that time, the idea of making a documentary began and, from then on, the "gods" began to happen. I talked to someone about this idea and other people "appeared", investors, like Antonio de la Torre...".
Was this film a challenge? "Any film is always a difficult challenge. As a professional challenge, a feature film is always a big one. The fact that it is a film with a Christian message has not made it more difficult," says Santos Blanco, "in fact, for me it has almost been an advantage, because it had a driving force, beyond the professional, that filled me a lot. I think it has given me a lot, on the one hand, you do what you like professionally and on the other hand you know that you are doing something more than pure entertainment".
De Duc in altum a Free
The film that will be released tomorrow throughout Spain was born with a very different title.: Duc In altum. In fact, as the film's director and screenwriter Javier Lorenzo recalls, "the whole shooting was called that way, in the sense of going 'into the deep' because, as the film's claim of the film, Free is a journey into the interior of man".
Lucía González-Barandiarán, from Bosco Films, versed in the distribution of Christian films, saw that the title had little "hook", but could not come up with another idea. However, almost at the end of the editing of the film they realized that free, freedom was "undoubtedly the word that appears the most throughout the documentary and, when you see it, you realize why", emphasizes the director, "without wanting to make spoilers, because everyone has to find their own answer when watching the documentary, I think that's the key".
There are many stories that appear in FreeSantos Blanco points out that "many of them have been left out or I have had to cut a lot of them". In total, the interviews, conducted in 12 monasteries and convents in Spain, female and male, resulted in more than 20 hours of recording. "We had to keep 100 minutes, I had to cut a lot".
They are varied stories and reflections, showing God's personal history with each soul. "Some connect more with young people, others with people with more life experience, but all are very special."
Free shows who they are: anonymous, unknown people who are, in the words of Santos Blanco "a hidden treasure. In Spain lives a third of the cloistered life of the world, and this impresses. We have a treasure".
Free
Methos Media's support
Many people and institutions have made this film possible. Santos Blanco is convinced that "without the collaboration of investors, individuals and companies, who have put money in, the film would not have come out".
Here, for example, the role of Methos Mediaa company specializing in the promotion of family-friendly audiovisual entertainment, which has been "key in obtaining investment aid, legal and tax issues and which has co-produced this film together with Variopinto y Bosco Films".
– Supernatural Declausura Foundation has also been a key driving force behind the project and the "entry key" for the cloistered monasteries where the film was shot.
Nor does the director forget the many people who have been part of the filming team: "from the cameramen and assistants to the director of photography, Javier Lorenzo, of course Javier Lorenzo as screenwriter, the director of photography Carlos de la Rosa or Óscar Martínez, composer, who have given rise to a product of the highest quality".
Freein movie theaters throughout Spain and on the way to other countries.
The movie Free opens on Friday 21 in cinemas throughout Spain. The theaters where it is available can be consulted on the film's website. It can also be requested in other cities and help in its promotion.
The creators of Free hope to make the leap very soon and take it to theaters in other countries, especially Latin America, in the coming months.
