Berlinale: the Peruvian filmmaker who is looking for the Golden Bear with a story about our heroine Tomasa Tito Condemayta

In 2019, the director Marina Herrera presented the proposal for the short film “Heroínas” in the National Project Contest: Bicentennial Short Films, carried out by the Directorate of Audiovisual, Phonography and New Media (DAFO). The short was selected as one of the 10 winning projects and, in theory, was going to be released in 2021 as part of the celebrations for Peru’s 200 years of independence, but the pandemic changed the plans.

. Different women from Acomayo, Acos and Sangarará who identify with this female figure that inspires them with courage, strength and determination, come to the house of Natividad Villafuente, 91 years old, who preserves and cares for this skull in a peculiar living room of her house. With devotion, the believers leave any type of sharp weapon at the base of the urn, hoping that a wish will come true. The film integrates the original idea of ​​fiction and the stories of the women of the area, who, imagining that the skull really exists, speak of their desires and needs before the camera.

Last Thursday, January 13, it was made public that “Heroines” will compete in the short film section of the Berlinale 2022, along with 20 other nominees. Trade spoke with the director Marina Herrera about the short, the nomination and the complications involved in recording in the midst of a pandemic.

Marina Herrera Badell was born in Barcelona, ​​the daughter of a Catalan mother and a father from Puno. He came to live in Cusco at the age of four, where he has spent most of his life. She moved to Lima to study Audiovisual and Multimedia Production at the Toulouse Lautrec University, and at the end of her studies she applied for a creative documentary master’s degree at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​which she concluded in 2014. part, thanks to a contest conducted by the DAFO.

How did the idea to develop the short film come about?

The initial idea arises when the DAFO opens calls for a bicentennial short film contest. was had to present something that has to do with this celebration. It was while talking with a friend that we began to talk about what would happen if there were something like the remains of the Niño Compadrito (a popular figure in Cusco who is an object of worship), but of a hero of the bicentennial, who was given a cult.

And why was the “skull” of Tomasa Tito Condemayta chosen as the figure to be venerated?

It was chosen because we were inspired by how cults are generated around remains, which may or may not be what one imagines, because one says “this is a remnant of such a thing” and a cult can be generated around that and that That’s the cool and fun thing about it. So we thought about which hero or which heroine we wanted to talk about. Since many women have been excluded from the history books, with the famous “anonymous signature”, what I wanted was to find a heroine from the area who was not linked to a male figure. That is how I came to the name of Tomasa Tito Condemayta.

Was she always the one they wanted to show as the heroine of Peruvian independence?

No, in the first version of “Heroines” Tomasa Tito did not appear, but it was about the Toledo heroines, because in our search for heroines unrelated to men they were the only ones we had found so far. In truth, the script changed a lot over time, in total there were thirteen versions (laughs). There were four days left for the shooting and the last version was not ready.

What was it like shooting in a pandemic?

The projects for this award were to be presented in 2020. We started pre-production in February, I went to do scouting, to look for locations in Cusco with the art director. In March, due to the pandemic, the entire project was suspended. I stay here (in Cusco) because I lived between Cusco and Lima for work reasons. After many months here due to the pandemic, I decided to stay and live and adapted the script to be able to record here without so many complications. I talked to DAFO and they agreed to do it as long as I record something (laughs). They asked me to send a new script for approval and I went to do the scouting in Acomayo. Once I had one of the latest versions, I started reviewing it with the advice of Fabiola Sialer, who is an editor, because being a mockumentary, the figure of a documentary editor like her was important. With her we wrote another version of the script, and we were already a week away from recording (in June 2021) but a wave of COVID in Acomayo caused everything to be postponed again. We canceled the shoot until August and the fact that this was changed made me adjust the script again.

Did you already have in mind to develop a project like this, a fictional documentary?

I think that in the creative documentary master’s degree, all these types of non-fiction or fictional documentary figures were dealt with, things that no longer have limits. It was something that I really liked, I like working with natural actors, I like not feeling divided in projects, not asking myself if something is fiction or documentary because, after all, it’s something you’re seeing and it’s wonderful. Cinema is a lie in itself, so if you like what they’re telling you, what does it matter if it’s documentary or fiction? I also like being able to play with shapes, because it serves perhaps to make you believe more of a story than if it had been presented to you in another way. Heroines is a bit like that, suddenly if we told you about it as fiction you would say “a skull in a Tomasa Tito house, what is happening?”, but suddenly you see it in a documentary and you say “of course a cult makes all the sense of women worshiping a skull, it’s normal” (laughs).

How much feminism is there in “Heroines”?

I think we show something inherent to the condition of women in Peru. The short film plays on that, to show a cult of women and point out that it is something that you could easily believe. In fact, only women appear, from the first to the last moment of the short. But with all these things, it is not that I have tried to force the logic of feminism. A few days ago I was talking to my sister and something that a lot of people have told me, even from festivals, is that they believe the story is true. And of course, the only thing that is false if you think about it, because there are many real conversations and statements, is worshiping a woman in this space. If there is something feminist, it is that.

You have worked as an assistant director on films such as “El guardian de los andes”, “Samichay” and “Amigos en apuro”, how useful has this experience been for you to now embark on a project as a director?

Since I finished my master’s degree, I started working as an assistant director, because I wanted to work closely with directors that I could observe and learn from. The first film I worked on was one directed by Ronnie Temoche, who made “El inca, la boba y el Hijo del Ladrón”, and after directing his second film he died so it was never released. I worked on that film as an assistant director. Then I started on other projects as assistant director and screenwriter. Management assistance is a figure that is very technical, but creative in terms of organization. I felt very comfortable working in this position, quite apart from my personal artistic aspirations. The direction assistance helped me understand the cinema from those great Peruvian productions and you know what the needs are and the organization of each area. Dedicating myself to this gave me many tools when making my short film and producing it.

Any work of yours that you recommend to readers?

(He thinks in silence for several seconds.) Yes, an interactive documentary that I developed in a group as part of a master’s project. Now there are several projects like this, but at the time, in 2014, it was something quite innovative.

You can view the project here, using a laptop or PC (not available in mobile format).

“Heroínas” will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and its local premiere will be at the beginning of March, when it will be screened together with the other short winners of the National Project Contest: Bicentennial Short Films.