From Aftersun to How To Have Sex, British filmmakers of late have been returning to the sun-soaked Mediterranean locations of their youth to locate a particular type of heartbreak and nostalgia; putting our national obsession with finding meaning in holidaying under the microscope. But British behaviour abroad is not just of interest domestically, but perhaps a European-wide fascination. Analysing the British phenomena of Balconing – whereby Brits often fall to their doom by attempting to jump into a pool or from balcony to balcony – from a Spanish perspective, Christian Avilés creates a unique mythos in Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays (La herida luminosa), tenderly mixing documentary-style observation with playful magical realist elements. Easily making it into our Top 10 shorts of the festival when it premiered at the Berlinale early this year, and one of the nominees for best short film at this weekend’s coming European Film Awards, we were delighted to talk to Christian about his truly one-of-a-kind movie. We discussed finding a way into a difficult subject matter, shooting on 16mm and how British people themselves reacted to his movie.
Appearing at first to be a whimsical exploration of holidaying in the sun, the film tackles the rather serious topic of Balconing in Spanish resorts, where Brits, Germans and other tourists, jump off balconies, either intentionally or by accident. What attracted you to this topic and how did you want to tackle it?
It’s the dramatic irony that inspired this story, essentially fueled by the teenage angst that can only be understood by the generation that is experiencing it, and continuously misunderstood by everyone else. Seeing some people who are risking their lives jumping from impossible heights; for the locals, it’s become a joke and something to make fun of. While this film is not in any way about positioning oneself in favour or against this behaviour, I found in this viral practice a way to channel my obsessions on how there are things in front of our eyes that could potentially be magical and have a spiritual depth yet we are unable to understand.
I thought a lot about our own rituals and how jumping off a balcony is something that has many times been portrayed in drama as a romantic sacrifice. In reality, when the tourists jump, they are also being recorded by their friends on their phones, which also adds a liturgical layer to it. It’s tragic to see young people play with death like that. Then again, adolescence feels like a moment where we feel things so intensely (sometimes without even understanding what we’re feeling) that it leads to us acting in extreme and mysterious ways, without ever thinking about the physical harm. I could very much relate to that.
I found in this viral practice a way to channel my obsessions.
To me, it felt like it mixed documentary and fiction forms extremely well. How much of the footage was staged and how much was simply you observing Brits abroad? What was it like working with the actors and making their performances feel so precisely tuned?
Because we had only so much time to shoot, it had to be almost entirely staged. There was a big pre-production work and research on how to mimic and hopefully make it look documental, so for the viewer, the material would remain real and life-like; as if the camera was a voyeur with its eyes on everything going on in the island. As for the performances, it was a good time. Even though it’s a choral film, not that many characters have a dialogue, so it became more of a game where we pretended to be sweaty and hot while sunbathing in the middle of March.
I have to talk about one shot in particular: the superimposition of a tourist lying on her back against shots of the beach. It has this epic, evocative feel that perfectly suits the story. What was it like achieving that shot and what does it represent to you?
Thank you! It’s a shot that I feel summarises the idea of the film, which is to look closer into a crowd and dissect the things that could be silently happening, especially about the rituals being practised in plain sight without anyone noticing them. We see her character lying and surrounded by only light as if she were alone immersed in a trance. It was our idea to isolate her in a place that doesn’t physically exist, a place of calm and pleasure. Then the image will slowly transition and the background will become a beach full of people doing the same thing, enjoying the sunny day out, to show the collective experience taking place. Still, her figure is outlined by a halo as if she were some biblical character. I had some estampitas de la Virgen that I kept as a reference for this scene. I wanted to represent in a very tactile way, how for them, the way the light is striking their skin, is something sacred that has less to do with their bodies than with their spirituality.
In terms of sound, I was looking for a way to express that dreamy feel I was chasing through the narrative and visuals.
You are also the composer of the film. Did you always want to compose the music yourself? This is very interesting to me as the soundtrack feels inextricable from the images. What was that process like and what were you going for in terms of sound?
From the writing process, I was already mumbling and recording on my phone some melodies that connected with the scenes as I imagined them, but I was afraid to commit to this department myself. I have a huge respect for music in films and composers, and it would play a big part in the story, so I always thought that I would pass the job to someone more experienced who could complement my ideas. I had never composed anything more than some awkward tracks as a teenager that I would store in absolute privacy on my SoundCloud account.
However, at one point, I realised I had already produced a full first version demo of the soundtrack so I could edit and it worked the way I wanted it to. I was happy that it came quite naturally. Also, without giving away too much for someone who might not have watched it, the choir scene involved lyrics – I had a great time doing that. It was pretty much a dream of mine to have a group of people sing together something that I had thought about and wrote in my bedroom.
In terms of sound, I was looking for a way to express that dreamy feel I was chasing through the narrative and visuals. I drew a lot of inspiration from lullabies, especially in the way they can be both sweet and tragic at the same time.
From the fog-bleached landscape of Liverpool to the very sunny depiction of Mallorca that simply pops off the frame, the colouring in Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays is incredibly vivid and exciting. I’d love to know more about your reasoning here.
It was a whole challenge to figure out the colours of the film. My cinematographer and I worked very closely, as he also did the VFX and most of the colour grading. While many of our visual references came from very raw and digital material such as YouTube videos and TV news of actual vacationers going on holidays in Mallorca, we wanted to transpose that into this other more fantastical reality. We wanted to make this film look like a fever dream in a way, to achieve an unreal appearance. The format of 16mm allowed us to do that – making it look a bit anachronistic, putting in contrast teenagers with their viral practices and cellphones on screen while what we see has a nostalgic feel to it. That nostalgia was something that we were interested in finding.
For this story, we saw the island as a kind of Theme Park of the Sun, bright and shiny, while also plasticky and artificial at times. On the other hand, the opening scene in the kitchen starts on a much darker note, as we have to understand the character’s gloomy emo state of mind. He is yet to be presented with the opportunity to chase the light; that will be all over his face for the first time through the gold-reflected card as an entrance or a portal to his fate.
The film premiered at the Berlinale, where it immediately made it onto our Top 10 picks of the Shorts section. What was your experience at the festival and the reception it had? I’m particularly interested in how British people responded to the film.
To premiere in Berlinale was a dream and the best possible scenario to have it be presented. Quite a shocking and extreme way to introduce it into the world, since there were many screenings and each one was packed with expectant audiences to see what the Shorts section would surprise them with this time around. In Berlin you can tell the festival loves and showcases the short format as one of the highlights of their edition, which makes it a blessing for new filmmakers who are just starting to comprehend that a big part of our work is to share it and relate to the audience, to understand how they will perceive it. I was very much looking forward to hearing about the British audience’s reaction. Luckily I was met with a very positive response. They understood where the film was coming from which is essentially a place of illusion, abstraction and respect.
We wanted to make this film look like a fever dream in a way, to achieve an unreal appearance. The format of 16mm allowed us to do that.
This is your student thesis film. What was it like working with your film school to get this made? Were they responsive to the idea?
I’m very grateful to them; I had very helpful feedback and I feel like they were great allies for the film to come to life. In the beginning, I had to gain their trust since the story kind of plays between genres and the tone would be something of a challenge to achieve. It’s a sensitive topic that we’re dealing with and there was a risk for them in producing something that could potentially be hard to put out there and be understood in the festival circuit. But I had an intuition about it and they were quick to see that, so very soon we were able to work and collaborate in the same direction.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on the writing of two different projects, one for a short film and the other for my first feature. These are two very different fiction scripts that, however, share with this film my fascination for teenage spirituality, romance and obsession. This time around I’m impatient to delve into more personal experiences regarding queer infatuation and homoerotism, while still mixing reality with the oneiric.
