Interview. The idea was to make an auteur film on a grand scale, in the style of the films that made us love cinema: the directors of La bola negra in the running for the Palme dOr

“La bola negra” is irrigated by the unfinished novel by Federico Garcia Lorca, by his struggle, and by his poetry.

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, nicknamed “Los Javi,” are in competition for the first time with this ambitious second feature film, which combines spectacle and depth, with stars like Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close. La bola negra was presented on Thursday, May 21 at Cannes.

This brilliant film tells both the Spanish Civil War and the homosexual condition through the destinies of three men, at three different times, based on the unfinished novel by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was assassinated by the Spanish Falange in 1936. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi reveal to Franceinfo Culture the backstage of this second feature film, which could win over the Cannes jury.

Franceinfo Culture: What made you want to bring this story to the screen?
Javier Calvo: We were on vacation in Ibiza, and I came across this play, La Piedra Oscura by Alberto Conejero, which I had seen on stage in Madrid a long time ago. I took the book for the plane, and when I started reading it, suddenly, before the plane even took off, I felt very moved, something happened to me. I told Javi (Javier Ambrossi) that we had to make a film out of it. Then, he read the play and he said yes, we have to do it. From that text, and La bola negra, we started to work, to investigate, and like that, one thing led to another. We understood that there were three ways of being gay, of living one’s homosexuality in that period of history, and we decided to introduce the contemporary period, to have a current counterpoint.

This film is about the history of Spain, the homosexual condition, Garcia Lorca, family secrets, how did you succeed in staging all these elements to make a film?
Javier Ambrossi: We didn’t want to make a film for a gay audience or an LGBTQ+ audience, but a film for everyone. Because I believe LGBTQ+ stories are universal stories. We didn’t want to make a message film on this issue. So, it’s a film about gay men, but it speaks to everyone. And it’s a spectacle because it’s a tribute to our country, Spain. We filmed for twelve weeks in the beautiful natural settings offered by the geographical diversity of our country, from north to south. The other challenge was to cross genres, from war film to intimate film, to musical comedy. The idea was to make a grand auteur film, in the style of films that made us love cinema.

It’s a film about two wars, not just the war with weapons, but also the war that all these young men have to fight throughout history, to be able to live their lives fully?
Javier Calvo: Yes, in the film, we talk about an inheritance, about these things we inherited, about these things we still feel deep within us, as queer people, even today, even though we have gained freedoms. It’s also an internal war, it’s internal pain, it’s internal shame, it’s a “black ball” that we carry inside. And the film also speaks more broadly about what we all inherit, about hidden family wars, about what has been silenced, and the violence caused by lack of communication. It’s something we all carry within us, and it can’t be resolved until we can talk about it. I think if we don’t tell things, we can never win this war.

There is poetry in your film, is that an important dimension for you?
Javier Ambrossi: Yes, poetry is very important, first as a tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca, who is the greatest Spanish poet of all time. Then, I believe that in a time when platforms emphasize content where everything must be completely understandable to everyone, where everything must be clear, where everything must have a single meaning, poetry claims a thousand ways of seeing the world, offers a thousand interpretations. Each person who reads a poem understands it differently. And I like that, because in a world where it seems there is only one direction, poetry offers multiplicity. And this multiplicity, for me, is the beauty of life.

Javier Calvo: And freedom too. It was important for the film to have an extremely strong sense of realism, things had to seem realistic, they had to seem plausible, but it was important for us to really emphasize the beauty of language and the beauty of images.

Your film in competition at Cannes, how does that feel?
Javier Calvo: It’s a film that comes from our hearts, so whatever happens, we are happy to share it.