Reaching the 5th day, the film festival has turned the halfway mark towards the goal. The screenings of the competent films from the competition section are screened everyday. The word of the mouth of people is spreading in the Blogs and SNS about TIFF.

A film screened on 21st (Wed) was Stories, the film from Spain directed by Mario Iglesias. The main character of the film is a middle-aged woman who’s an aspiring novelist which holds the darkness in her mind. The setting of the film, which the five stories that the heroine wrote as a writer, is effectively inserted in to one large story, the film. The elaborate structure is the appeal of this film. Following the screening, the Director Mario Iglesias and the leading actress, Concepción González appeared on stage for Q & A session. They answered the earnest questions by the audience.


Because the style in which the story was written was with in-depth psychological characterization and realistic portrayal of the event; the question was asked to the director whether, “The film was based on the real story or not?” Director Mario Iglesias answered that “Everything was a fictive writing”. “However, when the fiction (film) is being created, the reality of (the life of the writer) becomes the base of the fiction. In this sense of the word; we could say that the film is based on the real story. And I could also say that since I am an artist in real life; the final scene in my film which the portrait is painted is overlapped with my real life.”

And, “I think that the best lie is a truth. If you continue to realistically elaborate with the camera work and the set decorations, I think it will lead you to a making of a wonderful fiction film. If, for example, I were to shoot a horror film; I think I would continuously shoot the image of the real people. I feel that the reality is the real horror of all,” he said and exhibited his own philosophy about the film making. When he was asked for an advice from a man, who “aspired to become a film director”, he answered, “(With the advance of the technology), film making could be done easily without much money nowadays. There aren’t so many things to learn as a film director. By any means, don’t you wait to become a film director. I would like you to keep continuing to tell the story through the film media,” he mentioned.


At the press conference which took place at the TIFF movie café after the Q & A, the questions were asked by the participants regarding to the film making style of the Director Mario Iglesias. He also mentioned about his collaboration with the actress, Ms. Gonzalez, who also works as an actual psychological therapist. “Because I was a man, I’ve created numerous spaces in the film script for the actress to be able to make her expressions,“ said Director Iglesias. “’I’ve had numerous opportunities to talk with the Director during the script development. [Why not make this part this way?], I’ve communicated with him using my experiences. That is why I think that the perspective of the psychological therapist is reflected strongly in the completed film,” says Ms. Gonzalez. We were able to take a look at the favorable relationship between the leading actress and the Director. By the way, their relationship began with the street theatrical performance and they have been continuing to create works together for 7 years since then. Ms. Gonzalez made a film actress debut in short film by Director Mario Iglesias and this film will be her first feature film.