Set in a remote and desolate area in Bolivia, Cielo follows the eight-year-old Santa (Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda) who lives with her loving mother and abusive father. After swallowing a bright yellow fish, Santa embarks on a physical and spiritual journey that will take her across the country as she explores grief, wonder, and the power of embracing the unknown through various encounters, including that with a harsh but heartbroken police man and a fierce all-female Indigenous wrestling group.
Cielo had its UK premiere at SXSW earlier this month and will come out in the United Kingdom at the end of the year. During the festival, FILMHOUNDS had the chance to sit down with Alberto Sciamma, the director and writer of the film, and Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda, the 10-year-old actress who plays the role of the protagonist. In the interview, they discussed the inspiration behind Cielo, their collaboration on set, and the most challenging aspects of filming in extreme temperatures in Bolivia.
How did you first get the idea for Cielo?
Alberto Sciamma: My previous film was a comedy, and I knew I wanted to do something different, something that was coming from the heart without trying to be too cynical. But I didn't know what it was going to be. I started doodling, drawing, and painting, and some images came to me: a little girl swallowing a big fish and a girl lost in the infinity of the desert. It could have just ended up being a painting, but these images haunted me; I kept coming back to them in my head. And then I remember about a conversation I had in Berlin with one of the producers, John Dunton-Downer and his wife, who is from Bolivia. They asked me about what I wanted to do next, so I talked about these images, and they said that if I needed a desert, I should think about Bolivia. They showed me pictures, and it was incredible. I fell in love with the idea of Bolivia from that moment on. I went there and started writing the very first draft of the movie, so that was how everything started.
Fernanda, your performance was really beautiful in Cielo. Are you inspired by any actors or did you look up to someone when going into this film?
Fernanda Gutierrez Aranda: I don't know many actors, so I didn't have anyone to follow. I tried to find my own energy and my own understanding of how it could act, so everything came from within me.
How was it for both of you to work together on Cielo, and how did you collaborate on the film?
AS: I met Fernanda when she was only seven years old, and I was a little worried because I have two daughters. I know what seven means. But then we had one scene with her, and I realised Fernanda is 150 because she is so clever and she analyses things in a very intellectual way. I knew she could do it and I had a feeling that she was going to do something special. I was certain that she would be the right person, so we started to talk about the script with absolute sincerity. We talked about the dark moments and the brighter moments, and I talked with Fernanda, but also with her mum and dad, so that is how we started working together. I have never worked with an easier actor because she solves everything.
FGA: I found it easy to work with Alberto because I think that he is very creative and a lot of the film is very philosophical and poetical; everything in this film has a meaning.
You spoke about Bolivia and how you decided to film there. How was the experience of filming Cielo in Bolivia for you?
AS: Creatively, it was the best experience I have ever had. There is economic hardship in Bolivia, they don't have the facilities that you can find anywhere else, like in Europe. For example, there is only one place where you can go and hire some lights, there are no prop houses or nothing of the sort. You really have to just create something out of nothing, which is very refreshing and so similar to the way I work. I think it is like sculpting, you have a piece of material and you have to give it a shape. They work like this: if you need something, they will find it by going to the markets and trying different things. They have no division of labour—of course, to some extent, there is—but everyone helps each other. It was very refreshing because I was surrounded by that creativity.
I also wanted to talk about Santa, she is such an interesting character. How did you approach her, and what do you like about her, Fernanda?
FGA: What I like the most about Santa is that she is very mysterious, but clever and tender at the same time. Santa is a character that you can find a lot of elements in, but I started to identify with her and with parts of her personality in many different ways. I wanted to play her in a way that would touch the hearts of the audience and make them find something of Santa in themselves.
I know you worked with some non-professional actors in the making of Cielo. How was the experience of working with them?
AS: It was truly a family. We only had two professional actors who were the two policemen. One of them is Fernado Arze Echalar, who has worked in Brazil, New York, and is one of the main actors in Bolivia. But Bolivia works very differently for actors: there is no Hello magazine or press obsessing over actors, or casting directors as we know them. If you want to approach someone, the casting director just gives you their phone number, so it is a lot easier in that sense.
Some of the other actors have done theatre because they do a lot of theatre in Bolivia since there is very little work in terms of commercials, TV, or films. A lot of actors do plays and they write them themselves, they put them together, and get someone to show them. So there were some of them that had a little bit of experience, but a different experience compared to film. I was lucky enough to have a couple of weeks of rehearsal time with all of them, so I managed to get the script to adapt to who they were as actors, which made things very easy, and it was a really good experience.
FGA: I think because it is my first movie, some of them had more experience than I, even if they are not actors, and they did advise me and help me in the process. It took some time to break the ice for me, for example, with Gustavo, because I was seeing him as only the character and not the actual person.
AS: Fernanda didn't really act, she was there and she was feeling all of that, all her tears were real tears and her laughter was real laughter.
What was the most challenging part of making this film?
FGA: It was probably the days that we had to shoot in extreme temperatures. The movie looks very sunny, but some places were at minus 16, it got unbelievably cold. And when the sun was shining, you were okay, but if you went into the shadow, suddenly your hand was freezing. It was very difficult to work in the desert and in the jungle because the conditions were not good. Even if I wore protective clothing for the temperature, I was still freezing.
AS: To tell you the truth, there was none. I normally do a huge amount of research and preliminary work, for example for Cielo, we were composing music two years before, I was talking with the DOP for two years as well. I do all my homework so that when I get there, I can just go with the flow. Some people found that frustrating because I focused exclusively on the movie, but I was in a creative space with all sorts of unexpected things happening. But it wasn't difficult, it was a pleasure.
Cielo is having its UK premiere at SXSW London, congratulations! How does it feel to have the film play here at this festival?
AS: I am super happy because Cielo is a movie in Spanish and shows a place that is not as well-known as other countries. I am very proud to be here with Fernanda and excited to see how the English audiences are going to react to this film.
FGA: I am fantastically proud because it is so beautiful that a Bolivian movie has arrived at a festival like this one.
And what do you hope audiences get out of Cielo once they watch it?
FGA: I hope the spectators can feel as much love towards the movie as I felt playing Santa.
AS: I hope that they remember it, I hope it doesn't feel like something they have watched already. And I hope they are touched by the light that penetrates through the darkness in the story of this film. From the very beginning, I really wanted to talk about love, life, and hope with Cielo, but I realised that I could not talk about those things without talking about death. The character of Santa was designed in such a way that she never does anything bad. She is not a little evil kid in a horror movie; instead, her goal is absolutely pure: she wants to take her mum out of a life of misery and take her to a better place. I hope that the audience gets this light and this hope. We did have some screenings at other festivals, and we could see that some people had tears in their eyes and that they had been touched by the movie in some way. So I hope they are touched by it and remember it as a positive experience.
Do you think there is more to this story, and would you like to go back to the setting of Cielo in the future?
AS: Definitely, I have never been happier on a creative level. It was so intense, but it was pure creative happiness when I got to work with this group of people, this group of actors and the whole entire crew and Bolivia itself. My plan is to write a second part to the story.
Do you have any future projects you can talk about?
AS: Absolutely, I'm starting to write the second part of the movie, and I would like to write a third part. The first one is in a way the search for heaven, the second one is purgatory, and the third one is heaven itself. We already spoke with Fernanda because we would love to work together again. These movies take years to do and Fernanda is growing up. When we met, she was only 7 and had her 8th birthday when we started shooting, and she had her 10th birthday just a few days ago. I would love to.
FGA: I would love to work with you again, I think it would be great.
Cielo had its UK premiere at SXSW London and will be in cinemas later this year.
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