Italian
Filmmaker Pablo Pérez Lombardini cut his teeth working with leading Latin American directors, including Alonso Ruizpalacios (“A Cop Movie”), Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo (“The Other Tom”). Now, Pérez is making his solo directing debut with the environmental thriller “The Reserve,” participating at this year’s Copia Final section of Ventana Sur.
Based on real testimonies from environmental defenders, “The Reserve” tells the story of a forest ranger determined to defend the forest that surrounds her small village. Shot using natural actors in a rural community in Chiapas, the film frames the very real battle fought by conservationists across Latin America every day.
“The Reserve” is produced by Pérez’s company Pikila in Mexico and previously received support after winning the Premio José Maria Riba at Morelia and the Latamcinema.com award at Malaga’s MAFIZ market.
Popular on Variety Ahead of his Ventana Sur screening, Pérez spoke with Variety about making his solo feature debut, working with natural actors and the plans for his label, Pikila.
Without spoiling anything, there seem to be several storytelling reasons to present this world ravaged by deforestation without any color, but I wonder if you could tell me why you wanted to shoot this film in black and white?
The decision to shoot in black and white slowly evolved as we developed the film. As we got closer to shooting, I realized that color didn’t really have a function within the story. Later on, when we started visiting the communities where we eventually shot the film, I switched my camera settings to black and white, and suddenly, every corner became a possibility. Finally, when I received the original music that Yom composed for the film a couple of weeks before our shooting began, I became convinced that the combination of the monochromatic cinematography with the klezmer clarinet would help evoke the atmosphere that we were looking for.
The threats of violence against anyone who stands in the way of illegal loggers are very real across much of Latin America. Have you had any negative feedback to your production from the logging industry? And conversely, have you received any positive response from groups or individuals who are working to protect Mexico’s natural resources?
We haven’t yet received feedback from either one of those groups because very few people have seen the film so far. What I can tell you, though, is that from early on in our development phase, we knew that we were attempting to make a film in a region [Chiapas] that has increasingly become the battleground of the two biggest cartels in our country. Bearing in mind that the safety of everybody involved in the making of the film was our number one priority, we designed a very discrete production that relied on the mutual trust we built with the people who agreed to work on the film. Aside from that, we strongly relied on the advice we received from the park rangers, who generously accompanied us throughout the whole process. In the end, we managed to shoot the film without anything more serious than an assault on one of our equipment vans, whose driver, fortunately, was not harmed.
Your decision to use natural actors gave the film a very authentic feel. Was the decision to use non-professionals a creative or practical one?And was that always the way you wanted to shoot the film?
The decision to work with non-professional actors became evident once I realized that to tell the story of an environmental struggle, I had to delve with as much depth and specificity into a real context as I could. Once I found the communities that were willing to participate in this effort, I talked with many coffee producers to learn about the economic reality in which the struggle of our heroine could take place. As I interviewed these people, I became convinced that I wanted to make the film with them.
You’ve worked with some incredible filmmakers, but this is your first time directing a feature. How did you find the experience? Were there parts of the process that surprised you, or did your previous work prepare you for it would be like leading a production?
Working as an assistant director taught me a lot, both in terms of direction and production. Making this film allowed me to put into practice things that I had been thinking about for a long time. For me, the essential lesson is that the director must be, along with the producer, the most responsible person in the making of a film, not just in creative terms, but also ethically. When there’s a void in responsibility, filmmaking can become a very exploitative, wasteful and even dangerous activity.
Can you talk a bit about your company, Pikila? What kinds of films do you want to make there, and would you like to produce work from other filmmakers as well as your own projects?
Pikila’s initial intention was to produce my own films. Nevertheless, my partner Liliana Pardo and I are willing to explore the possibility of collaborating with other filmmakers, provided they are akin to the company’s principles.
