Directing the debt crisis

A young, transgressive theater company is working on a play about the causes and perpetrators of the debt crisis and how consumer society swallows the unacceptable. During rehearsals, the four leads - one guy and three girls - become aware of the difficulty of analyzing such a complex phenomenon and experience a crisis of moral and artistic identity that ends up putting them at odds with each other. This is the synopsis for Interferències (or, Interference), a film set to be released in Barcelona's Alexandra and Girona cinemas this weekend, where it will stay until at least the 24th. The movie is the first fiction film with a Creative Commons license to debut in theaters and on the internet, meaning that anyone will be able to distribute it, as long as it's not for commercial ends.

Why the title "Interference"? "Because of the interference that political and economic power has in people's lives and how their decisions affect our lives," says Iolanda Fresnillo, of the Debt Observatory, the research center that, along with the Quepo Fundación, has fostered the movie. "Interference" is also a play on the fact that the film is debuting at the very end of the election campaign this Friday. "It puts complaints about irresponsible, even illegal, actions by companies, governments and international institutions on the table," warns Fresnillo, who cites firms such as Zara and Unión Fenosa and businessmen such as Antoni Brufau and Emilio Botín as examples.

It goes without saying that Interferències is a highly topical movie, up to the point that, as it creators explain, the explosion of the May 15 protest movement coincided with the start of shooting. Distressing, clear and with a great deal of political content, the film has its actors (Maria Ribera, Anna Casas, Cecilia Ligorio and Rodrigo García Olza, whose characters in the film use their first names) use a colloquial language created in the improvisation work done during rehearsals, which sometimes transformed the script's dialogue.

An open and shared project, the film has been possible thanks to the participation of over 150 film professionals, audiovisual industry firms, social organizations and public institutions, say its promoters.