Catalan film-maker Neus Ballús is “impressed” by her nomination for the European Film Awards

London (ACN).- Catalan film-maker Neus Ballús got her movie The Plague (‘La Plaga’) nominated as one of the 5 candidates for the ‘European Discovery - Prix Fipresci’ Prize of the European Film Awards which recognises feature films made by new talents from Europe. In an exclusive interview with the Catalan News Agency from the BFI London Film Festival – in which Ballús is participating, the film-maker said that her movie’s nomination was totally “unexpected”. Ballús is very “impressed” by this decision, which she considers is “a recognition of movies made in a smaller and more humble dimension”. According to her, the other 4 nominated movies are productions “with a greater budget”.  Ballús stressed that many Catalan movies have this smaller dimension, which also gives them greater freedom to experiment. Ballús also confessed that when she started to shoot The Plague she was not even sure if she would be able to finish it. Now she is living “an unexpected and incredible moment”; “we are very excited about it” the Catalan film director added. Together with The Plague, four other movies have been nominated for the European Discovery Award, which are: the Swedish Äta sova dö (Eat sleep die), the German Oh boy, the French-Italian production Miele and the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Irish film Call Girl.

Neus Ballús believes that her movie’s nomination at the 2013 European Film Awards, whose ceremony will be on the 7^th December in Berlin, recognises the will to make good cinema with a small budget. It is a recognition of a sort of cinema that “tries to talk about issues from a deep perspective; issues that concern us and that are happening throughout Europe”. Ballús stated in ACN’s interview that her film is a way “to publicly criticise the economic, social and personal problems” that exist nowadays “in such a globalised world”.

The Plague’s synopsis reads as follows: “Raul, a farmer who wants to grow organic food, hires Iurie to help him in the fields. Iurie is a Moldavian wrestler who earns a living by whatever comes his way. Slowly, their personal stories intertwine with those of three solitary women: Maria, an elderly lady forced to leave her country house for a retirement home; Rose, a nurse from the Philippines who has just arrived in the country; and Maribel, a prostitute who has fewer and fewer clients. The destinies of all these characters become entwined as the summer goes on.”

An award-winning movie made by non-professional actors

The movie characters are non-professional actors who play themselves and explain their own personal history, located in an unspecified rural area in the periphery of Barcelona’s metropolitan area. The movie premiered at the 63^rd Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) and is receiving many international awards. Up to now, it has already received the Best Movie Award at Motovun Film Festival in Croatia, the Best Script at Toulouse’s Spanish Film Festival Cinespaña and the Ahmed Attia Award at the Euromediterranean Documentary Market Medimed in Sitges (Catalonia).

“At the beginning we didn’t even know if we would finish it”

Talking about her movie, Ballús explained that “at the beginning we didn’t even know if we would finish it”, since “considering Catalonia’s situation when it comes to funding movies, it was very complicated to finish it”. However, after La Plaga was unveiled at Berlin Film Festival last February “many doors at international festivals have opened”. In this vein, she continued that “in many parts cinema world, there was the desire” to support the movie because “it was different”.

“A boom in creativity”

Ballús also explained that her film, shot in Catalonia, is part of a new wave of creativity in the country. “There is a boom in creativity that I had not witnessed until now”, she added,, when she praised the fact that Catalonia had become a great territory for creative and innovative cinema projects. According to her, the economic crisis and its effects are part of the explanation for this phenomenon, since it has “created a new energy” and “a need to explain what is happening”. However, despite the flourishing creativity, new film-makers face the great problem of finding funds for their projects as well as adequate production. In the current context, despite The Plague’s success, “it is very difficult for these types of films to be able to go into the commercial circuit, not only in Catalonia but also in other European countries”.