FRANCE: Director Michel Franco's Daniel & Ana examines Mexico's kidnapping problem and the traumatic aftermath

Record ID: 858085

  • Title: FRANCE: Director Michel Franco's Daniel & Ana examines Mexico's kidnapping problem and the traumatic aftermath
  • Date: 21st May 2009
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 19, 2009) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ACTOR IN FILM DANIEL Y ANA, JOSE MARIA TORRE SAYING: "This is a very strong film. It is a film which brings you through a lot of different emotions. In Mexico people go to the movies for entertainment. People generally watch films which leave them happy. And they want to go home with a nice feeling. But we actors want to make films which move the people, which provoke something in people and bring them to an extreme. So we hope people will also like this film in Mexico."
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2009 13:00
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  • Location: France
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  • Country: France
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  • Reuters ID: LVABXAPY5WF03B0UFTYKE20O3PH4
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  • Story Text: Director Michel Franco examines Mexico's growing culture of kidnapping that touches the life of all classes in Mexico in his film Daniel & Ana, which premiered at the Cannes festival May 18.
    Based on true events, Franco delves into the psychological trauma felt by victims of kidnap, and how they learn to live with the trauma.
    Daniel (Dario Yazbek Bernal) and Ana (Marimar Vega), brother and sister, best friends. Both are at pivotal, defining moments in their contented lives. Bernal is the younger brother of Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.
    Ana is about to be married, Daniel is a gregarious teenager discovering his personal and sexual identity. Yet their harmony is instantly shattered when they are kidnapped and forced to have sex with each other in front of a video camera. Suddenly their old lives are a distant memory.
    "This film is about family relationships, family dynamics, the relationship between brothers and sisters," Franco told Reuters in Cannes on Tuesday (May 19). "What happens with the psychology of each character, what happens of you open Pandora's box. They have to confront their fears and their desires.
    Franco wanted to ensure that Daniel & Ana did not emulate stereotypical violent mainstream films.
    "I hope that people won't see it as an average violent film because of the way we shot it, Franco added. "And even thought the material is difficult I stayed away from stereotypes like melodrama and any scandalising effects. We filmed it as much as we could in a subtle way.
    The underlying message of the film looks at post traumatic stress disorder felt by victims of kidnapping and rape and the lack of support and counselling on offer to its victims.
    Making her feature film debut, actress Marimar Vega, told Reuters how she at times on set she felt most challenged when having to portray emotional despair without dialogue: "I was afraid that after this kidnapping and after the abuse my acting would be indifferent. I think my acting mood should be very different between those two acts. Because to be kidnapped is one feeling and to be raped is another, which is a ten times worse. And those scenes in which I had to react to all of that sitting alone in a car in a university was the most difficult to act because I was working all on my own."
    Daniel & Ana is competing in the Directors' Fortnight section of the festival.
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