STRANGERS

(Forasters)

A Family Melodrama across Two Centuries

“Unfortunately, political, economic, social and cultural borders not only persist, but new ones arebeing created. In some societies, these borders materialize as a wall, or as a visa, or as rigid, absurd immigration laws. Strangers are those who live in a society that rejects them, takes away their voice, does not recognize their right to be as they are, i.e. different, singular. Yet we ourselves often end up being strangers to our own society when we retreat into ourselves, when we put up obstaclesand inner borders and stop communicating with others, whether they be relatives, friends, partners, neighbors orforeigners. Fear of the unknown and of difference, fear of commitment, fear of loving, fear of existing;it is fear and nothing more that makes others and ourselves strangers.”

Sergi Belbel

(for the premiere at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Barcelona)

STRANGERS

(Forasters)

A ELS FILMS DE LA RAMBLA, S.A. production

with the participation of

TELEVISIÓ DE CATALUNYA, S.A.

Screenplay VENTURA PONS

Based on the play by SERGI BELBEL

Direction and ProductionVENTURA PONS

Line Producer: MAITE FONTANET

Music : CARLES CASES

Director of Photography : JOAN MINGUELL

Editor : PERE ABADAL

Art Director : BEL·LO TORRAS

First assistant director: CARLES VALERO

Direct sound: NATXO ORTÚZAR

Joan Pera’ make-up : DDT/ DAVID MARTÍ & MONTSE RIBÉ

Lab : IMAGE FILM

Sound Studio: DIGIT SOUND

Editing Studio: INFINIA

Original version in Catalan.

© ELS FILMS DE LA RAMBLA, S.A.

STRANGERS

(Forasters)

cast:

20th century:

EMMA:ANNA LIZARAN

FRANCESC: JOAN PERA

JOAN: JOAN BORRÀS

JOSEP: DAFNIS BALDUZ

ANNA: AIDA OSET

NEIGHBOUR: PEPA LÓPEZ

MANUEL: ROGER PRÍNCEP

SALVA: TONI MUÑOZ

21st century:

ANNA: ANNA LIZARAN

FRANCESC: JOAN PERA

JOSEP: MANEL BARCELÓ

MANUEL: SANTI PONS

MARC: NAO ALBET

ROSA: GEORGINA LATRE

PATRÍCIA: MARIETA SANCHEZ

ALÍ:DANIEL DANTAS

AHMED:XEVI CAMPS

STRANGERS

(Forasters)

Synopsis

A family experiences two traumatic events in a lapse of forty-odd years: the loss of one of the family members and how this affectsthe others; and the arrival of new neighbors, strangers, who upsetthe family and supposed social harmony.

The fragility of family relations, the passage of time, the meaning of existence and, above all, fear and mistrust of the unfamiliar (the stranger, the foreigner, the outsider, the other...) shakes the sensible mentality of these traditional people.
We discover that the true strangers are not these neighbors from another culture but we ourselves, who are so reluctant to integrate into our families, our everyday reality, our awareness and our affection.

My Third Belbel

After having adapted two plays by Sergi Belbel to cinema, Carícies (Caresses) in 1997 andMorir (O No)[To Die (or Not)]in 1999, I have decided, nearly a decade later, to make another film, Forasters (Strangers), based on one of his plays. The first two attempts, in my opinion, worked out very well and I remember them with great fondness. His texts allowed me to continue with an unconventional type of cinematographic narrative that I find greatly attractive, with results that helped position my cinema in the international arena. I believe that for many viewers in the world, there is a before and an after my first versions of Belbel.

What does Belbel’s work have that I find so interesting? Normally, when I talk about my films, I always mention above all the interest of the stories I choose, but in the case of works by Belbel, although the stories are also highly interesting, his narrative technique is what truly fascinates me. Caressesallowed me to establish a discontinuous circle that, seventy minutes into the film, returned to the starting point, in which the ending was already implicit. In my version of To Die (or Not), I took his proposal to establish two opposing plots to an extreme: death in the first part, life in the second. Black and white, unease, an anxiety-inducing camera, sequences without apparent continuityversus color, a story with a moral, classic writing, linear narrative. Now, Strangers allows me to play characters, their story, the city… against the passage of time, the game of jumping forwards and backwards, which is always so fascinating because it simultaneously lends density, volume and narrative agility. A highly cinematographic game, moreover.

And now, let’s concentrate on the story or stories. A family seen at two different periods, a lapse of some forty years having passed between the two. A dysfunctional family marked by what used to be called an ugly illness, cancer and death. A family falling apart, where the characters quarrel, insult one another, hate each other and refuse to accept in their predecessors what they will eventually, inevitably repeat in themselves. A family marked by relations of rejection, love and hate ofthe other, the upstairs neighbors, those strangers from a far-off land –Andalusia in the sixties, Morocco at present–who will also form part of this repetitive game that is life in the film Strangers. Above all, it is a family marked by disappearance and loss through cancer and death. And all of this brimming with the obsessions present in nearly all of Belbel’s texts: mothers who are possessivead nauseam, sons and daughters who negotiate complexes about their lives, which they come to reject, the idea of repressed homosexuality, the devastating lack of comprehension among generations… In sum, a dense, hard theme, a glance ( as the critic Sharon G. Feldman has stated) at “the present and future in relation to the past, a reflection on where we are and where we’re going” that can be served, as I have attempted here, on a plate in the form of a melodrama, a genre which I’m not sure of having attained, but in any case, which I’ve greatly enjoyed in the attempt.

To what point is everything a metaphor or symbol of our society? Are we really strangers to ourselves?My friend the dramatist Benet i Jornet believes that inStrangers, “the awareness of time is desperately and tragically felt, at the precise moment of the overwhelming discernment, the realization and torn acceptance of the tragedy, the acceptance of this monster-like thing that time can be said to be; just when death, the final stop, is opening its mouth to devour us”. I do not consider myself a pretentious narrator, but I do like my films to contain a great deal of substance so that the viewer can share my pleasure in approaching themes not very common in cinema, but that may particularly move them as they move me.

I would like to close by expressing my gratitude to all of the people who have accompanied me on this adventure, to the entire technical teambut especially the actors, and in particular the great Anna Lizaran, who brutally reveals her pain, and Joan Pera, who has dared to return to a register that I well knew was in him, but that he had been concealing under the profound humanity of an artist.

Ventura Pons

SERGI BELBEL

Terrassa, 1963.

Dramatist, director and translator. Degree in Romanic and French Philology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1986. Artistic Director of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, from 2006. Translations of his plays have been performed in many continents, including Europe, Australia and the Americas.

Plays: Calidoscopis i fars d'avui, 1985. La nit del Cigne, 1986. Dins la seva memòria, 1986. Minim.mal Show (with Miquel Górriz), 1987. Elsa Schneider, 1987. Òpera, 1988. En companyia d'abisme, 1988. L'ajudant and Tercet, 1988. Tàlem, 1989. Carícies, 1991. Després de la pluja, 1993. Morir, 1994. Ramon (Homes!), 1994. La boca cerrada (Por mis muertos), 1996. Al mateix lloc, 1996. Sóc Lletja (with Jordi Sánchez), 1997. La sang, 1998. El temps de Planck, 1999. Això no és vida (with Albert Espinosa and David Plana), 2003. Forasters, 2003. Mòbil, 2005. A la Toscana, 2006.

Awards:

Premio Marqués de Bradomín 1986, Calidoscopis.

Premi Ciutat de Granollers 1987, Dins la seva memòria.

Premi Nacional Ignasi Iglésias 1987, Elsa Schneider.

Premi de la Crítica 1991 best director, Desig.

Premio Ojo Crítico de RNE, 1992.

Premi Nacional de Literatura Dramàtica de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Després de la pluja.

Premi Serra d'Or 1994, Després de la pluja.

Premi Born de Teatre, 1995, Morir.

Premio Ercilla de Teatro, 1996.

Premi Butaca 1996 best director, L'hostalera.

Premi "Els millors de 1997" de Tarragona, best director, L'avar.

Premio Meliá Parque 1997, Después de la lluvia.

Premio Nacional de Literatura Dramática del Ministerio de Cultura, Morir.

Premi “Molière 1999” Après la pluie (Després de la pluja)

Premi Nacional de Teatre de la Generalitat de Catalunya best director, L’estiueig.

Premi de la Crítica “Serra d’Or” best director,La dona incompleta.

Premi Max de las Arts Escèniques , Després de la pluja.

Premi Ciutat de Barcelona best director, Dissabte, diumenge i dilluns

Premi Butaca 2003 best director, Dissabte, diumenge i dilluns

Premi “Teatre BCN” best director, Primera Plana

Premi “Els millors de 2003” de Tarragona best director,L’habitació del nen

Premi “Teatre BCN” best director, “El mètode Grönholm”.

Premi Butaca “Forasters”.

VENTURA PONS

screenwriter, producer and director

After a decade as a theatre director, Ventura Pons directed his first film in 1977, Ocaña, an intermittent portrait, which was officially selected by the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. With twenty feature films, nineteen produced by his own company Els Films de la Rambla, S.A., founded in 1985, he has become one of the best-known Catalan film directors. His films are continuously programmed in the best International Festivals, with a main interest from the Berlinale, where he has been officially selected during five consecutive years, and distributed in a lot of countries around the world.

He has been the subject of homages by the Bogota, Thessaloniki, Belgrade, Dijon and Luxembourg Film Festivals. The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in London, the Lincoln Center in New York, the Buenos Aires, Warsaw, Valdivia and the Istanbul Film Festival, the Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa Cinematheques in Israel and the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles have presented retrospectives of his films. He has been Vice-President of the Spanish Film Academy and has been elected to the Board of the Spanish Society of Authors. He has also been awarded with the National Film Award from the Catalan Government,the prestigious Ondas Award, the City of Huesca Award and the Spain Fine Arts Gold Medal and the Catalan Sant Jordi Cross.

Filmography

* 1978: Ocaña, retrat intermitent (Ocaña, an intermittent portrait).

screenwriter, co-producer and director

Festivals: Cannes, Potiers, Hyères, Montpellier, Bordeaux & CP/Paris (France); Berlin (Germany); Chicago, San Francisco, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Cartagena de Indias, Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Newcastle (UK); Adelaide (Australia); Firenze, Bolonia & Torino (Italy); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Caracas (Venezuela); Warsaw (Poland); Brussels (Belgium); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Huesca, Málaga & San Sebastián (Spain)…

Awards: Special Quality Award from the Spanish Ministry of Culture

* 1981: El vicari d’Olot (The vicary of Olot).

co-screenwriter and director

* 1986: La rossa del bar (The blonde at the bar).

co-screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Troia (Portugal); Cartagena de Indias, Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Bordeaux, Nantes, Dijon, Lyon, Toulouse & Annecy (France); Milano (Italy); AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); London (UK); Belgrade (Serbia); Caracas (Venezuela); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Warsaw (Poland); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Montevideo (Uruguay); Huelva & Málaga (Spain)…

Awards: Best Spanish Language Film at the Malaga Author’s Film Festival.Special Quality Award from the Spanish Ministry of Culture.Catalonian Awards: Núria Hosta (Best Actress) and Tomàs Pladevall (Best Technician)

* 1989: Puta misèria! (Damned Misery!).

screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Puerto Rico (USA); The Cairo (Egypt); London & Newcastle (UK); Milano (Italy); Troia (Portugal); Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Riga (Letonia); Sao Paulo (Brazil); Santiago (Chile); Gijón & Huesca (Spain)…

Awards: Catalonian Awards: Amparo Moreno (Best Actress). Actors and Directors Association Awards: Amparo Moreno (Best Actress)

* 1990: Què t’hi jugues, Mari Pili? (What’s your bet, Mari Pili?).

producer and director

Festivals: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); Puerto Rico (USA); Newcastle (UK); Lyon (France); Florence (Italy); The Cairo (Egypt); Hamburg (Germany); Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Murcia, Gijón & Peñíscola (Spain)…

Awards: Catalonian Awards: Mercè Lleixà (Best Actress) and Amparo Moreno (Best Supporting Actress)

* 1991: Aquesta nit o mai (Tonight or never).

producer and director

Festivals: Köln & Hamburg (Germany); Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Varna (Bulgaria); Calcutta (India); San Francisco (USA); Merignac (France); The Cairo (Egypt); Riga (Letonia); Dublin (Ireland); Cádiz & Peñíscola (Spain)…

Awards: Catalonian Awards: Ventura Pons (Best Director) and Mónica López (Best Actress).Actors and Directors Association Awards: Blanca Pampols (Best Actress)

* 1993: Rosita, please!

producer and director

Festivals: Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Sofia (Bulgaria); Dublin (Ireland)…

Awards: Catalonian Awards: Mercè Arànega (Best Actress)

* 1994: El perquè de tot plegat (What it’s all about).

screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Mannheim, Munich, Koln, Berlin, Bremen & Tübingen (Germany); Osaka (Japan); Stokholm (Sweden); Montpellier, Dijon & Annecy (France); Puerto Rico, Chicago, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Montreal (Canada); The Cairo (Egypt); La Habana (Cuba); Dublin & Cork (Ireland); Milano (Italy); Zürich (Switzerland); Singapore (Singapore); Warsaw (Poland); London & Manchester (UK); Bogotá (Colombia); Brussels (Belgium); Lisboa & Oporto (Portugal); Santo Domingo (Rep. Dominicana); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Thessaloniki (Greece); Zeeland (Holland); Asunción (Paraguay); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Valdivia (Chile); Caracas (Venezuela); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Istanbul (Turkey); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Montevideo (Uruguay);Huesca, Cadiz, Peñíscola & San Sebastián (Spain)…

Awards: Ventura Pons, winer of the National Film Award from the Catalan Government.Best Film (Peñíscola Film Festival).Sant Jordi Awards:Best 1995 Spanish Film.Actors and Directors Association Awards: Jordi Bosch (Best Actor) and Anna Lizaran (Best Actress).Butaca Awards: Best Film, Jordi Bosch (Best Actor), Rosa Gámiz (Best Actress).Nominations 1995 Goya Awards: Ventura Pons (Best Screenplay), Carles Cases (Best Music)

* 1996: Actrius (Actresses).

co-screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Cartagena de Indias (Colombia); Montreal & Vancouver (Canada); Shanghai & Pekin (China); Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland, Puerto Rico, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Stockholm (Sweden); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Espoo (Finland); Dijon, Amiens & Annecy (France); London, Cork & Manchester (UK); La Habana (Cuba); Milano & Roma (Italy); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Thessaloniki (Greece); Istanbul (Turkey); Caracas (Venezuela); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Warsaw (Poland); Belgrade (Serbia); Valdivia (Chile); Porto (Portugal); Brussels (Belgium); Montevideo (Uruguay); Huesca, Sitges, Valencia, San Sebastián & Cádiz (Spain)…

Awards: Special Jury Award and Best Screenplay (Cartagena de Indias).Nominations 1996 Goya Awards: Ventura Pons & J.M. Benet i Jornet (Best Screenplay)

* 1996: MMB: Quadern de memòria (MMB: Memory Notebook).

(Author x Author Series)

screenwriter and director

Festivals: La Habana (Cuba); San Sebastián (Spain)…

* 1997: Carícies (Caresses).

co-screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Berlin, Hamburg, Munich & Koln (Germany); Torino & Firenze (Italy); Seattle, Washington, Puerto Rico, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Connecticut, Filadelfia, Cleveland, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Brussels (Belgium); Montréal & Toronto (Canada); Bogotá & Medellín (Colombia); Montpellier, Dijon, Burdeos, Paris, Annecy, Foix & Toulouse (France); Ljubijana (Slovenia); Thessaloniki (Greece); La Habana (Cuba); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Buenos Aires (Argentina); London (UK); Belgrade (Serbia); Lisboa (Portugal); Sao Paulo (Brazil); Istanbul (Turkey); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Warsaw (Poland); Caracas (Venezuela);Santiago & Valdivia (Chile); Montevideo (Uruguay); Santo Domingo(Rep. Dominicana); Dublin & Cork (Ireland); Huesca, Valladolid & San Sebastián (Spain)…

Awards: Ventura Pons: Best Director (Turia).Mercè Pons: Best Actress (Ojo Crítico RNE)

* 1998: Amic/Amat (Beloved/Friend).

producer and director

Festivals: Berlin, Hamburg, Colone, Freiburg & Braunschweig (Germany); Brussels (Belgium); Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo (Brazil); Torino & Roma (Italy); London & Manchester (UK); Seattle, San Francisco, Filadelfia, Chicago, Sant Louis, Puerto Rico, New Haven, Tampa, Rochester, Pórtland, Denver, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec & Vancouver (Canada); Annecy, Toulouse, Nantes, Dijon, Foix & Bordeaux (France); Troia & Lisboa (Portugal); Espoo & Turku (Finland); Amsterdam (Holand); Thessaloniki (Greece); Santo Domingo (Rep. Dominicana); La Habana (Cuba); Bogotá (Colombia); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Istanbul (Turkey); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Warsaw (Poland); Santiago & Valdivia (Chile); Caracas (Venezuela); Montevideo (Uruguay); Belgrade (Serbia); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Cape Town (South Africa); Sidney (Australia); Seul (Korea); Berna (Switzerland); Mexico (Mexico); Hong Kong (China); Huesca, Valladolid & San Sebastián (Spain)…

Awards: Ventura Pons: Special Jury Award Ondas 99.Best Director (San Pancracio Awards).David Selvas: Best Actor (Paco Rabal Award).J.M. Benet i Jornet: Best Screenplay (Troia Festival, Portugal).Best Film (Santo Domingo Festival).Best Film & Best Screenplay (Toulouse Festival).Best Film and Best Actor: Josep M. Pou, Butaca Awards.MedFilmFest Rome: Jury’s Special Mention Award.Best Actor: Josep M. Pou (Bordeaux Festival).Jury’s Honorable Mention (New Haven Film Fest).Nominations CEC (Film Writers Guild) Awards: Josep M. Pou, Best Actor and J.M. Benet i Jornet: Best Screenplay.Nominations 2000 Goya Awards: Best Actor: Josep M. Pou, Best Supporting Actor: Mario Gas, Best Screenplay: J.M. Benet i Jornet

* 1999: Morir (o no) (To die (Or not)).

screenwriter, producer and director

Festivals: Berlin (Germany); Chicago, Seattle, Miami, Puerto Rico, AFI/Washington, AC/Los Angeles & LC/New York (USA); Annecy, Toulouse & Douarnenez (France); Milano & Bergamo (Italy); Toronto (Canada); Moscow (Russia); Oslo (Norway); Copenhage (Denmark); Troia & Lisboa (Portugal); Thessaloniki (Greece); Santo Domingo (Rep. Dominicana); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Bogotá (Colombia); Manchester (UK); La Habana (Cuba); Luxembourg (Luxembourg); Belgrade (Serbia); Istanbul (Turkey); Tel-Aviv, Haifa & Jerusalem (Israel); Warsaw (Poland); Santiago & Valdivia (Chile); Caracas (Venezuela); Montevideo (Uruguay); Huesca, Cadiz, Valladolid & San Sebastián (Spain)…

Awards: Ventura Pons: City of Huesca Award.Ventura Pons: Best Screenplay (Troia Festival, Portugal).OCIC Award (Troia Festival, Portugal).Best Film (Toulouse Festival, France).Best Actor: Marc Martínez: Butaca Awards.Nominations CEC (Film Writers Guild) Awards: Ventura Pons: Best Screenplay