“Magaly Solier has a unique talent, something that I have seen very little”

The film is from 2019 but only now, three years later, can it be released in our country. “Unfortunately, the pandemic touched us,” says Chilean María Paz González, director of “Lina from Lima”–, but I don’t think it’s a film that ages or drinks from contingency. So it’s not terrible either. I am happy to finally be able to see her in Peru.”

Because “Lina de Lima”, in theaters since last Thursday, is a film that unites both Pacific countries. Its protagonist is Magaly Solier in the role of Lina, a Peruvian who lives in Chile and is a domestic worker. While dealing with her everyday problems, Lina inhabits a dream world where her music and costumes make her a sudden star. A strange, funny and deeply empathetic film that animates and gives much-needed variety to our movie theaters. About that we talked with the southern filmmaker.

You have talked a lot about the great role of Magaly Solier, but in an interview you said that Magaly is Violeta Parra. In what sense?

It seems to me that Magaly has a unique talent, that I have seen very little. She is very particular, very complex, she in herself has a great power and an exterior capacity. The way she builds her character, the way she lives her relationship with acting is unique and dazzling. There is something very original there, very honest, very deep, very consistent. It seems to me that she is a tremendous artist, beyond the fact that one knows that she is a very good actress. She is a very complete and complex person. And that I think she always gives a lot to the characters. It is very unique what she achieves, it seems surprising to me.

I also know that you were worried that an actress as attractive as Magaly could be seen as something a bit “exotic”. And on the other hand, I was thinking of the caricature of Andean women, which unfortunately we continue to see in many cases in Peru. Are these two sides of the same coin? How have you thought about the representation.

I think that in Chile I had not been asked specifically about the representation of Andean women, which is perhaps a peculiarity that is observed more from Peru. But she had asked me about indigenous women, which is something that happens here with women from the north, with Mapuche people. There is also a characterization, but less and less, because those things are already in very bad taste. The same is always a kind of condescending or over-exoticized look. And that was something that scared me a little. I think it is a constant question that we have to ask ourselves from art and culture. Even the word “represent” is already complex. Basically it is about how to build in the cinema or in other media. How to work and understand what we are working with. For me that was a constant question. And the scare arises because Magaly is super pretty, she has an amazing look, and one can eventually accommodate her in a place like that, semi-exotic. But in fact the film plays with that a bit, with certain dreamlike moments, where one sees her playing, with virgin costumes. It’s almost like a parody of those modes. It is but it is not. There is a mix where ‘kitsch’ plays a little, and I wanted to reflect on that too. About how we represent women who are workers, migrants, indigenous, women with respect to their sexuality. And all of that is a series of things at the same time, it’s not just one thing. There are several themes that converge in the film. And that was a challenge for me, it was something very difficult. That’s why so far it’s hard for me to say what this movie is about. It is the story of a migrant, a woman, a mother. I think it’s an open conversation and that I think many directors in the cinema are doing, about how to look at ourselves. About our diversities and the multiple layers we have in life.

And among all these readings, have you thought if the Peruvian public could have a particular view of the film?

Let’s see, how could I say it… For me that is also a question, a doubt. I have been related to Peru for a long time. It is a country that I greatly admire, for its culture, for its beauty, for its connection with its roots. And this movie kind of comes out of that place. In general, I also know that relations between Chile and Peru are marked by competition. There is always that feeling that in Chile we are stealing everything. But in my case, the film is built much more from admiration for a very complex and profound culture. And I would love for that to be noticeable. It is a film made with great collaboration of Peruvian artists and teams. With Magaly in the leading role and the lyrics of the songs, with the art director, with many musicians. Peruvian men and women are very much at the heart of the film. And that comes from my long relationship and affection for Peru. They are countries that have a lot in common, but that have been separated by a somewhat absurd competition, inherited, misunderstood. But what unites us is much more than what distances us. And that is interesting to think from the cinema.

I was thinking about the relationship between your documentary “Daughter” and the fiction “Lina de Lima”, which is about a mother. What captivates you about that mother-child bond?

I am very interested in the roles that women have in society. And I kind of like to stir up places that seem commonplace. A working woman, a migrant, an adopted daughter… Places that are like fertile fields for melodrama, but one can see them from another place. And that immerse us in a very everyday universe, very recognizable. They are films where I easily feel that one can connect and feel identified with what happens to these female characters. I am very interested in working around these contemporary women. And through the characters and the cinema, I try to understand. Because more than I know something and want to explain it, what I try is to know things. The movies give us that possibility and I learned a lot from “Lina de Lima” and I learned a lot from Magaly too. In that, the work of fiction has also been a discovery for me. Because in fiction reality also comes to life, it begins to incarnate and ends up being something very concrete.

Are the Lina in the movie and María Paz González alike?

I think anyway. For me Lina is a character that is inspired by many women I know and surely she has something of me too. Maybe the wishes. Sometimes that’s part of you. One would like to imagine being in a musical, for example, or that things could have another color. The truth is that it has caught my attention how many women feel identified. There is even a certain humor or comedy in the film that generates a kind of very nice complicity, especially among women. That seems very interesting to me.

Was the musical element present from the beginning of the project?

Yes, it is something that comes in handy from the origin of the project. Even at first she thought he wanted to make a music documentary. But I understood that in fiction it could be developed with much more depth, complexity, and that it could give the characters freedom, understand the story from another place. It is a work that comes from the script. And I had a hard time presenting it because it was kind of weird. Because it is not that the film is directly a musical. Musicals fulfill another narrative function. Here the songs belong to a more secret and intimate world of the character, but it is not that they advance the story. So it’s not really a musical. For me it is much more inspired by Tsai Ming Liang’s films, a slightly more hybrid musical. And that’s where Lina begins to open up to different Linas. That also happened to me when I began to investigate, to immerse myself in the world of Peruvian migration in Chile. I spent a lot of time at karaoke, together with Betty, who plays the character of Lina’s cousin. With her friends we went to karaoke and I was impressed to see how they chose the songs, how they got on stage and somehow left their lives, telling their stories, the way they performed, how the tears fell. The rage for the ex-partner, the fears, the desire to break free. And I realized that it was a very interesting terrain, very fertile, very colorful. And there is also a theme with the representation of the Peruvian upside down, the Peruvian of “yes ma’am”, because nothing to do with it. Actually the Peruvian is good at dancing, good at talking. I was also interested in removing that, that what was shown in the film resembles reality. Magaly even told me “I have never had so much dialogue”. It was super challenging to have so many dialogue scenes.

It is a journey through various musical genres. How did they work it?

We did a great research on the musical richness of Peru. We were listening to a lot of cumbia, huayno, carnival music. We work with Cali Flores, who in addition to being Magaly’s manager is a composer, so he knows Peruvian rhythms very well. We also worked with Jose Manuel Gatica, who is my partner and is also a composer, but he helped me above all from the narrative point of view. And Alejandro and María Laura and other incredible musicians also collaborated. It was super fun. And everything in the execution of the music is Peruvian. It’s not that you want to take ownership and think how you would do it.

You’ve been recording recently in the Peruvian jungle, right?

Yes, with my friend Brian Jacobs, who is the Peruvian producer of “Lina de Lima”, we have been working together for a long time. He edited my documentary “Daughter” as well. Now we are making a film in Iquitos, a documentary with a bit of fiction. We are exploring the materials of an Amazonian filmmaker, half in black and white, a very interesting thing that is there in the editing process. So the peruanities that I love are still there.