The Catalan that speaks with horses

Marcel Barrena had no idea who Santí Serracamps was until he received a call from Adrián Guerra, a producer at Nostromo Pictures, asking him if he might be interested in making a documentary. The filmmaker, who at that time was preparing Mediterráneo, about the founder of the NGO Open Arms, already had experience in the genre because he had made Món petit (2012). Guerra told him that Santi was a boy from Llagostera with a special gift with animals and that they were interested in him going to see him.

So he took the car in the direction of that Gironés municipality without really knowing what he was going to find. “Horses don’t mean much to me and I unconsciously related them to a world that wasn’t mine. But when I saw what I was doing and I noticed the happy faces of the animals, I told myself that there was a story there. Never I had seen communication like that between a person and an animal,” Barrena explains in conversation with La Vanguardia.

And that story has ended up being transformed into a beautiful documentary entitled Hermano caballo and it opens this Thursday, June 8 in various cinemas in Spain after its acclaimed passage through the Malaga Festival. Little by little, both Marcel and Santi found the thread to create a story full of emotion in which Serracamps himself addresses the camera to explain his fondness for steeds, a love that was inherited from his grandfather, a taxi driver. with horses.

And it is that Santí was born the same day as Kyfruc, next to the one who gallops and bathes happily in the sea. “We grew up and grew up together. As a child I didn’t have many friends. I understand myself more with horses than with people,” confesses this man who has invented a unique language to communicate with his friends. In the documentary we see him caressing them, doing exercises and placing himself on their backs.

With the human that he understands best is his brother and right hand John, in charge of the company with which he prepares the shows. “I want free animals, but I do shows. I know it’s a contradiction. I’m not a tamer. They are my life and I try to improve theirs. You can be a friend and brother to a horse,” he says. The film started in 2020 and the process lasted about two years on and off. In the middle, a pandemic that canceled his shows around the world and almost led to the ruin of the family business, the forced sale of his magnificent mare Nika and the retirement of Kyfruc.

During that trip, “we found dramatic motors. We knew that Santí would need a new horse that he could not afford and we went to Morocco. We were building a plot,” says Barrena about the preparation of a script that he drew up with Camilo Villaverde. Despite the difficulties, Santí is always optimistic and does not hesitate to buy a malnourished and badly injured horse, almost at death’s door, in the streets of Marrakech to recover it with a lot of patience, affection and the invaluable help of a veterinarian. He nicknames this new partner Mabrouk and, over time, he will gain his trust and become the show’s new attraction.

“He is a super positive guy, a transparent, friendly and generous person. He is like a child whose shadows have not yet come out and that is seen in the way the animals look at him and take care of him. They see him as one more of his gang. What you see is what you get,” says Barrena. Although he is not shown on screen, the director tells that Santí has ​​worked at Spielberg’s ranch, royal families from all over the world, soccer players, and children with autism to whom he has practiced equine therapy. “He is the best at what he does, they call him from everywhere and he never looks at names or IDs when working,” he emphasizes.

In Llagostera he has set up a kind of zoo and in front of the camera everything from owls, kangaroos, dogs or llamas to a snake that runs around his neck while he brushes his teeth parades. “In the pandemic he took in many abandoned animals and has taken care of them. And he always takes the blame for him when he has had an accident with a horse.”

Barrena assumes that Santí “is a man with a special talent, in the style of Óscar Camps from the Mediterranean, Albert Casals from Món Petit or the 100-meter Ramón Arroyo. A type of people who from the outside may seem crazy and you end up seeing that they are special. They have a goal and they achieve it because in the end they generate good energy and positive things”.

Hermano caballo also captures difficult moments in Santí’s life, such as the call he receives in London from his brother announcing the death of his beloved horse. “He had grown up with Kyfruc and it was very difficult, even for everyone, that we had grown fond of him.” Santi’s philosophy is based on well-being, trust and playing with animals. “A good horse can change your life, but a really special one defines it for you,” he exclaims proudly.

Barrena assures that he has learned a lot shooting the documentary. “When we don’t know things, clichés, fear and ignorance invade us. The great luck that those of us who dedicate ourselves to cinema have is that one day you can make a film about some lifeguards and another day about a man who talks to horses and you see that from the inside things are different and much more natural. I could only say that Santi puts on shows with animals, but there is much more. He recovers animals, he has a healthy relationship with them. Things have to get to know each other and know them well, if we do not remain only with the surface”.

Next week, the director begins shooting a new film, El 47. It is the story of an act of peaceful dissent and the grassroots neighborhood movement that in 1978 transformed Barcelona and changed the image of its suburbs forever. “There is a sequence in which I need horses and Santí will come to help us with Mabrouk. They are small things that brighten and improve life. I am happier having met Santí than if I had not met him.”

According to the director, “making this film has been very nice. Hitchcock always said that it was very difficult to shoot with children and animals. We have shot with a big boy full of enthusiasm who has behaved like a professional, and his horses have not generated no problem. We have made a beautiful film from a very young age, for children, parents and grandparents”. And he concludes with a fundamental request: “It is important that people go to see it this June 8 at the 8:00 p.m. session. This is how it will work and endure on the billboard.” An ideal film full of values ​​for the whole family to enjoy.