Category
📺
TVTranscription
00:00 In this episode of Originos for the 2024 edition of Serimania,
00:04 we are with Javier Calbo and Javier Ambrosi,
00:07 who we can know under the nickname of Los Ravis in Spanish,
00:10 who have just presented La Mesquite, present in the international panorama.
00:13 - Hello! - Hello! How are you?
00:15 - Hello! - Very well!
00:17 Perfect!
00:19 So you have been both the 8th creative couple in Spain for a few years now,
00:26 but the French people maybe don't know you that well.
00:29 So I was wondering, if you could recommend a project to know you better,
00:34 which one would it be?
00:36 I think they could start with Veneno,
00:40 because it's a very international story,
00:46 although it's very local.
00:48 I think the LGBT community and the audience in general,
00:52 they're going to connect with that story.
00:56 And then they can go to La Mesías,
00:58 which is our last show,
01:01 and it's a big journey, an intense journey.
01:08 You are a full 360 artist,
01:13 actors, producers, directors, writers, blah, blah, blah.
01:17 So which hat do you prefer,
01:22 and is it everything or nothing for you?
01:24 I'm not an actor anymore, I quit.
01:27 I was a teenage actor on a show,
01:32 that actually I think it aired in France.
01:35 It was very popular.
01:37 It was called Physique Chimie.
01:40 But I'm not an actor anymore.
01:46 I'm a writer, and because I'm a writer, I'm a director,
01:51 because I only write, writing is hell,
01:55 so I write to direct, and I produce to be free.
02:00 So yes, it's all or nothing,
02:02 which writing, directing and producing.
02:04 Yeah.
02:06 Like directing something that you didn't write
02:11 should be something very hard, in my opinion.
02:16 To me, our stories are so personal,
02:19 and comes from a very natural and personal place.
02:24 So directing is like a second part of writing,
02:28 and producing is the same, it's like the same journey.
02:32 So yeah, I guess it's all or nothing.
02:36 So let's talk about La Messias,
02:38 which is in the competition this year,
02:41 Panorama International.
02:42 So what is the pitch?
02:44 Can you explain the show to us?
02:45 Wow, it's a complicated pitch,
02:47 because it's like a very authorship show.
02:50 So it would be, oh, I will have to do some spoilers to pitch it,
02:56 but it's this story about a family during decades,
03:02 about trauma that puts the family together and apart.
03:05 And at the end of the day, it's a story,
03:08 a drama family with some thriller and some sci-fi,
03:14 some musical and some religion about a family
03:21 that grew up trapped in a house, a part of the world,
03:25 and how they became viral doing a Christian music band.
03:32 Complicated pitch.
03:34 It's probably your most serious project so far.
03:40 So is it like a step up from your previous project,
03:43 as in you did a musical, you did some comedies,
03:46 and now it's, okay, you have some elements of everything,
03:50 but it's serious.
03:52 When you grow up creating and you want to dive in
03:58 into what creation is, at least for us,
04:02 you understand you shouldn't trick the audience.
04:07 You should go in as real as possible
04:13 without lying and without things
04:18 that make you want to manipulate the viewer.
04:25 So I guess that's what maturity and seriousness means here.
04:31 It's naked of, oh, this is dramatic,
04:35 so I'm going to jolly in or I'm going to play this music.
04:39 No, it's hard.
04:41 It's raw and you feel you're inside those situations
04:49 because this movie, this show talks about child abuse,
04:55 talks about traumatic childhood, and talks about fanaticism.
05:01 So those are really serious subjects.
05:06 And we didn't want to--
05:08 Yeah, we wanted to be as distant
05:13 and not manipulating as possible
05:18 because I think that's how you treat seriously serious subjects.
05:24 I guess that when we were growing as an artist
05:29 and at the beginning of our career,
05:31 our projects said, "Love me" all the time.
05:36 "Love me, like me, see me, watch me, be with me."
05:41 And La Mesías is rower.
05:44 It is what it is.
05:46 Do you like it?
05:49 Okay, do you not like it?
05:50 Okay, it is very honest in this way.
05:53 It's not pretending to be like, "Oh, like me."
05:57 It's not tricking anyone.
05:59 It's a very raw and complex author drama
06:04 about the complexities of growing up in religious fanaticism.
06:10 But it was very well received in Spain.
06:13 Well, that was surprising
06:15 because when you risk as an author, you are always afraid.
06:20 You're like, "Okay, people will like it or not."
06:24 And people loved it.
06:27 And I guess that's because audiences nowadays, they know a lot
06:31 and they are sick and tired of the algorithm.
06:34 I guess audiences, they don't want anymore to be like,
06:38 "Oh, I know when the end of the show is coming.
06:40 "I know the plot line.
06:42 "I know that the McGuffin, the Gunda, whatever."
06:44 They know everything.
06:46 So they are eager.
06:48 They are willing to find shows that are new and different
06:52 and that comes for a place of truth, I guess.
06:58 Yeah, we need to take the audience seriously
07:03 because I think if you look at them over the shoulder,
07:08 you always lose.
07:11 I think audience are mature enough and compelling enough
07:17 to see things that are original, different,
07:22 and creating something new.
07:25 I think we have to make the algorithm.
07:28 We shouldn't let the algorithm shape us.
07:33 Yeah, it's like now there's a lot of ideas about
07:38 the pilot should be that way and the second episode that way.
07:42 And at the 15 minute, you have to do this and this and this.
07:46 There's a lot of rules that really put us aside of art.
07:50 And art is before the rules.
07:53 And I think that's something we don't have to forget
07:56 when we are writing.
07:56 Maybe the pilot could be the way you want to be.
08:01 It's not like a pilot is not supposed to hook people.
08:10 It's supposed to show a part of the story.
08:14 And maybe it's a weird part.
08:15 And maybe it's a new part.
08:17 I don't think we have to write in a specific way.
08:24 I get hooked when I'm surprised.
08:28 When I'm moved.
08:32 And when I see truth.
08:36 So the show stars Macarena Garcia.
08:41 It's my sister.
08:42 I know that's what I'm going to say.
08:43 So since she's your sister, did you have her in mind
08:46 when you wrote Irene?
08:48 We usually write for specific actors.
08:51 And we wrote this main role for my sister.
08:55 Because she's the best.
08:58 She's one of the best actress in Spain.
09:00 And she's my sister.
09:01 And the story is about being related.
09:07 It's about siblings.
09:08 It's about how we relate with our own family.
09:11 So it was very, very magic to work with my sister
09:15 in a show about brotherhood.
09:18 So directing my own sister, it was magic.
09:22 And it also healed me in a way.
09:25 Because we could put in the show our own experiences
09:30 and family traumas.
09:32 So religion is very, very anchored in Spain.
09:35 I was wondering, how do you balance being religious
09:39 and being part of the queer community?
09:41 We are not religious.
09:43 Yeah, I don't even have a religious background.
09:47 But I think on one side, it's about beliefs.
09:50 And on the other hand, it's about manipulation.
09:54 So I write about beliefs because I need--
09:56 now we fight a lot to be alive as a queer community.
10:05 And I feel now I need that spirituality that I don't have.
10:09 So I think when we grow up and we grow old,
10:12 we're going to say, well, what do we believe now?
10:16 How are we going to save ourselves?
10:20 How are we going to face emptiness?
10:24 So I guess I write about spirituality because of that.
10:30 Because I don't have it.
10:31 But I also find interesting how manipulative religion could be.
10:38 I think Monse, the mother, represents that.
10:41 Like the use of beliefs in order to manipulate and say,
10:45 you are not-- you're not good.
10:49 You're evil.
10:50 You shouldn't-- you don't deserve to be part of the community.
10:55 You don't deserve-- you're not good.
10:58 And also, being trapped-- like the children,
11:07 they grew up trapped outside of society.
11:10 And it reflects us on being queer.
11:13 Like when I grew up, I felt trapped in the town.
11:17 There wasn't anything for me because I felt so different from everyone.
11:24 And watching movies and watching shows, it opened a window for me.
11:30 And I could see there was world bigger.
11:34 And there might be a place for me.
11:37 So yeah, so--
11:40 And about the power of movies to save you.
11:42 What's the process between you two as a couple?
11:45 I mean, when does the work stop?
11:48 Or are you always talking about work?
11:50 We work all the time.
11:52 So-- or maybe we don't work.
11:56 We leave.
11:58 We don't have a personal and a professional life.
12:03 We share life and friends and work and writing and directing and producing.
12:07 We do it all the time at the same time together.
12:10 So it's like we are one.
12:13 So we are very used to because we didn't do it separately, never.
12:19 So it's our way to do it.
12:22 It's very natural.
12:23 It's how we would do it.
12:24 It's like we share the stories and we debate ideas.
12:29 And we talk with the actors together.
12:32 So we do it all the time together because we have a deep connection, I guess.
12:37 Yeah, and that search for spirituality, I think I find it in creation.
12:42 I think that's where I find-- I kind of find a sense of meaning in life.
12:49 We're watching-- right now we're watching a Spanish show called "Nos Vemos en Otra Vida."
12:55 It's good.
12:57 It's about the terrorist attack on Madrid on 11 of March of--
13:06 Well, thank you very much.
13:07 And we hope to see La Messia soon in France.
13:10 Thank you.