“Evil exists and wolves must be fought, not trained”
Chatting with the young director Santi Trullenque, it can be seen that he is in love with classic filmmakers, one of those who imprinted personality, something he aspires to from the first film with which he debuted, The cold that burnsa powerful war drama that takes place during the Second World War, in Andorra, where there were smugglers who lived by crossing the border to those who fled from Nazi-occupied Europe.
The backbone of this film is encysted hatred. I would like to know what elements convinced you to adapt a play to the cinema.
I would say that what also interests me is the nature of evil, but also of good, both are intrinsic because we live in this dual world. Hate, unfortunately, is one of the pillars of many families. In fact, I love the quote from writer John Steinbeck that opens the movie because he sums up the movie’s motive so well: “Evil can be defeated, but it will rise again.”
Were there many smugglers on the border between France and Spain during World War II?
There was an evasion network, let’s say of a political nature, but, let’s be honest, the passers didn’t do it for free. And there were cases of all kinds. The Civil War began and after families fleeing from the Second World War, there were either Jews, prisoners of war, fugitives, etc… They were people who knew the mountains and who knew how to cross the Pyrenees, and it was not easy to do it with the snow that there was in those years, was a tremendous epic.
His film is based on a play. But have you introduced themes of her own harvest?
Yes, I would never have gotten involved in a project like this if I couldn’t contribute my vision. I believe that a film belongs to the director and not in the idea of agreeing everything. And if something matters to me, it is that the film has personality and character, something that I miss in today’s cinema, be it commercial or auteur cinema. We have been softening and the films also live from that spirit of the times.
It is your first film, what difficulties have you encountered, apart from the fact that it will have been difficult for you to finance it?
Making a film is always very complicated, and on top of that we started shooting on March 9, 2020, and four days later we had to leave Andorra because the border was closed to us, we left everything behind; the sets, the trucks full of material, the costumes, thinking that it would take 15 days and it took us seven months. That meant economic and logistical penalties, rethinking the film and financing it from scratch. Even lost due to work dates to the protagonist who was going to be Aida Folch who replaced Greta Fernández.
I can’t imagine anyone else in this film other than Greta, who is colossal.
It’s the same for me. On the one hand, Greta transmits youth, but she is old, she is someone who has been forced by her environment to make important decisions.
His film involves an emotional journey that transforms the main characters.
I was interested in pulling that thread, the protagonist is gaining in humanity, but her main objective is the survival of the girl she is waiting for and herself. The years go by, but the human does not change in its essentials.
Evil exists and so do wolves, I am one of those who believe that we must go out and fight them. You don’t have to wait to turn them into lambs, and you can’t train them because they don’t change. Somehow, The cold that burns It is the story of Little Red Hood in reverse, because she will take control of her life and her destiny.