Headlights have always been very attractive for cinema. Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner competed to conquer a very remote one at Cape Horn in The Light of the End of the World (Kevin Billington, 1971). The one from Formentera illuminated the passion of Paz Vega and Tristán Ulloa in Lucía y el sexo (Julio Medem, 2001) and Pepe Isbert was a lighthouse keeper in Calabuch (Luis García Berlanga, 1956).
Now, Álvaro García-Capelo recovers the myth of the lighthouse in Viento Sur, an enigmatic film starring William Keen and María Fernández Ache, which hits the big screen today. Keen plays Robert, a corrupt businessman who, after serving his sentence, is released from prison (and recovers a suitcase full of 500-euro bills). And Fernández Ache is Mónica, also a lighthouse keeper, the woman who picks up Robert and gives him shelter in the isolated lighthouse in the Basque Country where she lives.
For García-Capelo it has not been too difficult to recover the myth of the lighthouse and update it to its 21st century reality, because “my sister is the lighthouse keeper of Machichaco in Vizcaya, I spend long periods of time enjoying the place and I had it at my disposal”, recounts the director in an interview with La Vanguardia. “We filmed in my sister’s lighthouse and I was even able to get a little inspiration from her, because in addition to being a lighthouse keeper, she is also a painter, like the character of Fernández Ache, and all the work that appears in the film is hers.”
The closeness with his sister helped the director, who is also a screenwriter and cinematographer, to show how this exotic trade has changed with the advent of technology. You no longer have to be aware of hitting the switch at the right time to avoid shipwreck: “Formerly, four families of lighthouse keepers lived in Machichaco, which is why the building is so large. In addition, there were rooms for the engineer. The lighthouse was lit with oil and had to be pumped all night, so it took four shifts. Now my sister is in charge of all the headlights in Vizcaya, which turn themselves on and off with a photoelectric cell. She has computers that notify her of everything. It is more computer science than she farera ”.
Mónica, the protagonist of Viento Sur, in addition to hitting the buttons, has to worry about finding out what the mysterious Robert is about and what his relationship was with his brother, who also lived in the lighthouse and who died in an accident. Mónica saves her brother’s ashes to throw them into the sea when the south wind blows, but until that moment arrives, she will have to unravel the intrigues that arise around this 21st century lighthouse.
