Isabel Coixet wins Málaga Film Festival award for her career's work and screens 'Learning to drive'

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan film director Isabel Coixet screened her second latest film 'Learning to drive', starring Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson at the Málaga Film Festival this Friday, where she has been awarded a prize that recognises her professional career up until now. Coixet is probably the most internationally acclaimed contemporary Catalan filmmaker, having directed 10 feature-length films including 'Things I Never Told You' (1996), My Life Without Me (2003) which won a Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Berlin's Golden Bear, 'The Secret Life of Words' (2005) which won the main Goya Awards, and ' Map of the Sounds of Tokyo' (2009). Coixet manages to craft her films in  her own style, whilst also working  with Hollywood stars such as Ben Kingsley, Tim Robbins and Penélope Cruz. She  has also been involved in the making of many documentary films and commercials.

The Film Festival in Málaga will give the Retrospectiva Award to Coixet on Friday and will screen the director's films as well as a documentary about her career. The screening includes Coixet´s second latest movie 'Learning to drive' (2014), which preceded 'Nadie quiere la noche' (2015) that was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. In 'Learning to drive', Coixet counted on actors Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson to make the film, both of whom worked with the Catalan director in 'Elegy' in 2008. The film was premiered at the last Toronto Film Festival.

The Málaga Festival Award feels like "a reset"to her career

In an exclusive interview with the Catalan News Agency Coixet said that "it's nice isn't it? Suddenly to look back and to see that I have made ten movies, documentaries ... seeing it all together always makes an impression on you, but I accept it very well." All this, she recognised, makes her think a lot and about the help that "keeps coming. Somehow it's like doing a 'reset' and starting afresh."

Unlike other Coixet films, 'Learning to drive'  does not have heightened points of drama even though the characters live through their own dramas. The director admitted that "I wanted to make a more light-hearted film, one that  would not be about something that the world has come to suffer." "I wanted to do something in which the characters were not marked by tragedy," she added.

The director pointed out that 'Learning to drive' is "a story about the exploration of the other, all those people who clean other peoples' homes, who drive taxis and who take care of other peoples' children. A lot of the time we do not cross this barrier because we don't want to listen to their problems and we don't want any lessons from them because we don't need them".

Bringing the film to life

The idea for 'Learning to drive' came from an article which was published 12 years ago in the New Yorker about the real life experience of the much-loved writer in America, Katha Pollitt. As Coixet explained, the article was about Pollitt's experience learning to drive after divorcing her husband and the how it served "as a way to recover from the breakup."

The article was read by actor Patricia Clarkson, who bought the rights for the story. Later, she showed the story to Coixet and Ben Kingsley whilst they were filming 'Elegy' in 2008. "We really liked it and spent many years in which Clarkson tried to persuade producers, but they said that there was no crime, no love story, nor any of the things that are supposed to be in a movie." Finally, two American producers decided to finance the film. Coixet explained that the script was already written, but she changed some things in the dialogue and added some scenes. "This is normal for all directors who take hold of a script, we give it a bit of our own touch", she said.

'Learning to drive'

Using Sarah Kernochan's script, 'Learning to drive' is a romantic comedy that tells the story of Wendy, a writer from Manhattan who decides get her driving license whilst her marriage is collapsing. For this reason, she has classes with Darwan, a political refugee who earns a living as a taxi driver and a driving instructor.

As Coixet described, the main character represents "that entire world with the three-story house, but that kind of life is broken when her husband tells her it's over." "She goes through all sorts of extreme emotions, self-pity, anger, sorrow and depression and decides to take driving lessons for practical reasons", said the Catalan director.

"Through the relationship with the person who teaches her to drive, she learns to see the world in a more relaxed way and to look at what is behind the things that happen". In addition, the character recovers from her past experiences: "She comes from an upper class but very humble family and is also someone who wanted to bury her past." From here on "she learns how to be alone and to understand others better." Driving turns into a form of therapy for the protagonist. According to Coixet, "how you feel about life is reflected in the way that you drive".

"A city of many cities" does not always encourage tolerance

Another issue touched upon by the film is intolerance, above all, of the Sikh character, played by Ben Kingsley. "In the original story the driver was not Sikh but Filipino,” explained Coixet. But “There are many Sikh taxi drivers and we spoke with several of them" she said. In the film there are some tense situations when the driver is insulted for his physical appearance and for wearing a turban.

New York and its traffic also play an important role in 'Learning to drive'. Coixet stressed that in this city there is "such a charge of traffic and during the night, it is a city of extremes." She emphasised that there are different "New Yorks" within New York. The shooting of the film was mostly done in Queens. "This idea of a city of many cities which theoretically encourages tolerance is not always how it really is" she said.