Friday afternoon. Three couples meet at a venue to chat with their therapist, who has suggested they hold a joint session. The psychologist does not appear, but she has left some envelopes with instructions, which will help the patients to verbalize their concerns. Alexandra Jiménez and Fele Martínez have been dating since school. Now they have been together for so many years that it seems that the magic between them has disappeared. The arguments about how to educate the children and the small daily quarrels have been wearing down their marriage.
Antonio Pagudo and Eva Ugarte have been dating for a couple of years. They are fine and they like each other very much, but she, traumatized by a previous relationship, refuses to live as a couple. The relationship between Juan Carlos Vellido and Malena Alterio seems to be toxic. He is a textbook macho and she looks timid, he only talks about her when her husband allows him and admits to having gone through a recent depression.
Gerardo Herrero directs Bajo terapia, a film based on the play by Matías del Federico that has premiered today in the official section of the Malaga Festival. Herrero goes to the theater every week, because “it’s the best way to discover actors,” and when he saw Under Therapy he fell in love with the story. “I came back a few days later and decided to buy the rights, but it wasn’t easy, because the author didn’t want to sell while the tour lasted and, furthermore, there were five other interested producers,” the filmmaker explained in an interview with La Vanguardia to his I stop by Malaga to present the film.
Herrero decided, in addition to producing, to direct the film, because “I was interested in the subject of mistreatment and also relationships, children or alcohol problems suffered by some of the characters”, he points out and relates that those eight envelopes that the absent therapist has left for her patients “are the basis for talking about interiors until the surprising end.”
And it is true that the end of Bajo terapia is unexpected, which is why Herrero is very careful with his words, he does not want to make spoilers for the film, which is competing to win the Golden Biznaga, so he prefers to focus on technical issues and recounts that he was tempted “to shoot the film in a single sequence shot”. “Then I gave up, but there are very long shots, shot from different angles to capture the different reactions of the actors,” he adds. The result of this way of working was “more than 22 hours of footage, which drove the editor crazy, but it was fun for me and allowed the actors to enjoy themselves.”
Therapy can be used to redirect a relationship, but when the couple breaks up, a lot of pain is generated. “The usual thing is to look at that damage, but the suffering of divorce goes far beyond the members of the couple,” explains Elena Trapé, director of Els encantats, who has also entered the contest today in the official section of the Festival of Malaga. Laia Costa gives life to Irene, a girl who has just separated. She already has her new apartment set up in Barcelona and she has found a boyfriend. Little by little, her life is getting back on track.
Until his ex takes their common four-year-old daughter because “it’s her turn” to spend a few days with him. Irene suffers from this first separation from her daughter and spends it outside in her house in the Pyrenees where she reconnects with a childhood friend, shuns the wise advice of her mother who, aware of her daughter’s pain, does not stop calling her, and she suffers from the loss of daily contact with her little girl, the collateral damage of the separation.
And Malaga has another portion of difficulties prepared for tomorrow within the couple. Félix Viscarret directs A Not So Simple Life in which Miki Esparbé is a young and promising architect who, in his forties, becomes a victim of the famous crisis when he reconsiders whether his relationship works, as he is burdened by day-to-day care for children and due to the lack of job projection. The life that he had planned does not quite bear the expected results.
