25/11/2018 - Newcomer Gemma Blasco delivers a curve ball with this millennial theatrical drama, where moments of truth nestle among an anarchic interplay of reality and fiction

The Llendes section at the 56^th Gijón International Film Festival has just played host to the world premiere of El zoo [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first full-length feature by Barcelona native Gemma Blasco. The singularity of Blasco’s premise defies easy categorisation, the idea having first come to her as she was working on the audiovisual side of Captius, a play produced by Barcelona’s Sala Beckett through its youth theatre lab, Els Malnascuts.

The play was a simulation of an extreme reality show (a cross between Big Brother and an episode of Black Mirror), where the audience was given the power to choose when each character left the scene. Blasco was a privileged witness of everything that went on during rehearsals: the tensions that grew up between the performers, their emotional highs and lows, the complex transformation between actor and character... All of this struck her as ideal material for the project that ultimately became this remarkably bold and exhilarating film.

It opens with a group composed of four actresses and an actor, all very young. Amid the habitual chaos of the dressing room, they are immersed in conversations that we struggle to make sense of. Are they rehearsing the lines they will later say on stage, or are they just talking amongst themselves? The sense of uncertainty is maintained throughout much of the film, and this exploration of the boundary between fact and fiction is its greatest strength. Interpersonal conflicts between actors are an intrinsic feature of this particular play: their fate depends on their staying in the competition. Yet, it is the theatregoers who decide which will remain on stage until the end, determining who among them will have a chance to shine.

Off-stage, the rest of the film dispenses with a script, with most of what we see based on Blasco’s direction and the cast’s ability to improvise. Thus, an impossible fabrication is built up before our eyes, where multiple layers of reality overlap — evoking a sense of awe in the audience, who have no option but to let themselves be swept away by the spectacle served up to them.

It’s impressive to see a debut director who can handle this highly complex narrative with such consummate skill, without the whole thing coming off the rails. This is thanks in part to the astute editing, with fast-paced scenes interspersed with calmer moments, letting the film breathe and preserving the audience’s engagement. It’s remarkable, too, to watch the actors switch deftly from the intense, exaggerated style of the theatre to the natural, realist performances that the film’s quasi-documentary nature demands.

El zoo was produced by Tekila Movies in collaboration with the Els Malnascuts, the youth theatre lab of Barcelona’s Sala Beckett.

(Translated from Spanish)