by Anthony Frajman
One of the most talked about films at this year’s Berlinale, was Natalia López Gallardo’s Robe of Gems.
The first film by the Mexican-Bolivian filmmaker, an acclaimed editor on films by Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante, the feature follows three women in the Mexican countryside, whose lives are intertwined by a missing person case.
We spoke to Natalia López Gallardo at MIFF 2022.
Robe of Gems takes place close to where you live in the Mexican countryside. How did the film begin?
“For me, reality is placed in the Mexican countryside. So, I knew that for my first experience as a director, I wanted to express something that is really close to me. And, of course, I started looking around the place I know.
“I wanted to talk about this Mexican reality related to violence and to crime, but especially a spiritual wound in the people, because of this tragedy that is happening for 20, 25 years now.”
Did the location have an impact on the filming?
“Definitely. I wrote the script at some point during the location scouting. It was not a fixed script. I made a script for the funds and then applied for funds. But then I started the construction of the film after that. And I constructed the film through the locations and the people, definitely. And through that process of searching for the locations, for me, it was very important to shoot in the dry season, where everything is yellow and dry, and all the insects are almost aggressive in the countryside. In that search, I found the heart of the film. So, for me, that’s almost the most important thing, the locations, and of course the cast.”
The sound is a big part of Robe of Gems. How important was this element to you in making the film?
“I think it’s the element that I like the most, because sound is the master of reality in a way. If you don’t have sound, you don’t experience. You can close your eyes and through sound, you can really experience things. So for me, it’s a master of reality, but it has very noble characteristics. Because with vision, you see. You see a chair and a man, so you don’t have to imagine anything because everything is there. But with sound, you have to imagine things. I really like darkness. You walk in a dark place… and your imagination starts… And you have to put images to things that you are not seeing, that you’re just hearing…
“I think that sound is very noble. Sound is the element of integration, because sound penetrates you, like vision separates you; with the vision, you know the limits of the frame, you know the limits of the objects, the distance. But with sound, you don’t know that. You are in the middle of everything, you are being penetrated by it. I like that of sound.”
You did a lot of research prior to making the film, speaking to many who had been affected by crime in rural areas near Morelos, on the Mexican countryside. What was that process like?
“When I was doing the research, I didn’t know what the film was about really. I spent a lot of time hearing the stories of people and I was thinking, ‘I cannot feel what these people feel, really and I cannot experience what they are experiencing and how am I going to transmit that?’ So, especially with the mothers that have missing children, that is so deep, it’s so deep. It’s so huge that it’s so overwhelming, the pain. I felt really guilty. And I said, ‘How can I transmit this?’ I knew that I didn’t want to make a political or a social statement. There are amazing documentaries with a lot of information and political analysis and social analysis, economical, anthropological. There is a lot to say in those dimensions about this tragedy, but I wanted to communicate something else about this situation. At a point, I realised that I had the wound also… my wound, it was different from the wounds of these women, but suddenly I realised that all Mexicans, we have the wound inside. And it was a spiritual wound, and we can connect with it in different ways. I stopped feeling guilty, at a point. I started to connect with my wound and I start to recognise the wound in everybody else.
“It is a very, very deep tragedy and there’s so much destruction, in a psychological way, to recognise that humans are dismembering other humans and you ask yourself, ‘Why this could happen in a country (like Mexico)?’ You come to Mexico and the people are so warm, so close. There is empathy everywhere. And the people are generous. It’s a very warm country. You ask yourself, ‘Why this is happening here?’ That wound, I think it’s something underneath the society, everywhere. That’s why I think it’s a spiritual wound that is going to last for generations. Maybe because this wound is very, very deep.
“I think that the only solution possible for everything is the collectiveness. The empathy, real empathy, and to realise that we are the same. My goal is that people can get close to that in a psychological experience.”
You worked with a cast of mostly non-actors. How was the process of working with them on the film?
“The casting process was very long. It took me a year, a year and a half, doing the locations and the casting. I think that the casting process for the director, you are looking for a person with whom you can communicate deeply and open yourself and they can also be open. It’s a long process because it’s not easy to find that person.”
Having been an editor for Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante, did this have an impact on the film?
“I learnt from editing, definitely. And from other directors, like Carlos. Carlos is a very, very generous director, because he’s very clear and communicates a lot, and he’s very open with his ideas, his conceptions. It’s very rich to work with him, because he gives a lot. So, I learned a lot from him. He’s a source of inspiration for me as a human, and of course his films, absolutely. And all the directors I have been working with. Editing really informed me and my vision of everything. I learned to analyse cinema, that was my obsession. I really love all the elements of cinema.
“It’s an absolutely different experience. You have a lot of responsibility when you are the director and the producer and the editor and everything. And every good thing and every bad thing, it’s your responsibility. The [directing] experience was a new one. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a beautiful experience, to really question yourself every moment and try to be open all the time to communicate and to give something honest and be really, really transparent. That was difficult, but it’s a beautiful process.”
You made the film in 2020, just as Covid began, and then had to stop filming. How challenging was this?
“Yes, we shot in 2020, and we stopped on Friday 13th, the first day of the pandemic, March, Friday 13… And then I edited for a year, and I cried when it happened. I wanted to continue. It’s my first film. But then when I started editing, and I was alone, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a blessing’. Absolutely. Because I had 75% of the film in my hands. So, it was fantastic. It definitely impacted in a good way, because I had to shoot again. So, when I did the edit, I realised that I didn’t need some things that I had to shoot. So, I didn’t have to shoot them anymore. And I just thought a lot… ‘What is this film about?’”