Catalan filmmaker Jaime Rosales premieres 'Morlaix' at Rotterdam film festival

Jaime Rosales is a Catalan filmmaker with 24 trophies and 35 nominations, including accolades such as Gaudí, San Sebastián's Golden Shell, Goya, and Cannes.

'Morlaix' is Rosales' eighth movie, now premiering. It tells the story of a "young girl who lives in this small town named Morlaix in the French Brittany."

The acclaimed filmmaker will present his movie at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, taking place in the Dutch city from January 30 to February 9.

Gwen, the main female character in the movie, acted by French actresses Mélanie Thierry and Aminthe Audiard, is in her last year of high school when Jean-Luc arrives at the town that "produces a change in the whole crew of friends while she falls in love with him," Rosales said.

French actor Samuel Kircher and Catalan German actor Àlex Brendemühl play Jean-Luc.

The story helps Rosales "completely leave politics and current affairs behind."

"I tackle problems related to the meaning of life, losing someone, and death that shows that we, as a society, must correct the path we are taking," Rosales told Catalan News days before the premiere.

"It is important to live listening to others and giving attention to those elements that deserve it," he added. The movie tries to force spectators to "wake up" from this kind of amnesia of "having a limited time and not being able to question ourselves on our future."

Photos, videos, and unscripted dialogues

'Morlaix' combines photos with videos recorded using 35mm black-and-white and 16 mm color cameras. 

Rosales said the decision was a "very personal one. " In reality, the challenge was to combine all these visual and storytelling elements to ensure that what we are explaining has an interesting story for the spectator. 

Audiovisually speaking, the movie combines different techniques in terms of footage. And something similar occurs with the script.

The Catalan filmmaker combined scenes in which the script was reproduced word by word with scenes in which the actors had some guidelines for the general story, had to improvise based on their feelings, and had room for saying "their own words and their own ideas."

"The scene that is completely improvised allows a level of opportunity for the actors to create and to bring something beyond my control," Rosales told this media outlet.

"If I had used that in all the scenes, then probably the dramaturgy would be too soft, and the film's rhythm would be extremely slow and not tense," he added before saying, "If I do the same thing all the time, I get bored."

Five years ago

The Catalan Goya Award winner said he started working on 'Morlaix' over five years ago.

Rosales explains that it was just a coincidence that the movie was recorded in the French town of Morlaix. He had the idea while promoting one of his previous films.

"I was captivated and felt that I had to do a film. Now that the film is ready, I feel like it is something very special and beautiful, as I finally made it," he said.

"The film portrays our work and art's impact on people's lives," he added.

'Morlaix' will premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival and then be shown in cinemas in Spain from March 14.