Title: THE BELOVED (EL SER QUERIDO)
Section: Competition
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Screenwriter: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Pena
Sales agent: Goodfellas
Logline: The acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez (Javier Bardem) is a legend both for his films and for his past marked by violence and excess. For his new project, he offers his daughter Emilia (Victoria Luengo) a role under the pretext of helping her with her stalled acting career. Living together on set will foster a closeness they haven’t shared for years, but it will also reopen old wounds that never healed.
Panelists: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Key quotes: “The idea of the film was born of the desire to both work with Victoria [Luengo] and Javier Bardem. And in fact, the very idea of the film about a father and a daughter was born of a 2021 dinner conversation we had with Isabel Pena and Victoria and myself about paternity and we really wanted to work with Victoria again and with Javier Bardem.” – Rodrigo Sorogoyen
“[Toxic masculinity] is another theme of the film, but that became sort of a natural theme with inventing a character who was a 55 year-old film director, somebody who is considered a genius, and therefore somebody who has a lot of power. He was the perfect example of toxic masculinity — someone who doesn’t know how to speak about his feelings, someone who doesn’t know how to say he’s sorry. And it also provided us with the opportunity to say that things have changed, that other models could exist. And to have three women saying, ‘Hold on, this is not on anymore.’” – Rodrigo Sorogoyen
To see the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
