Saturday, April 14

The Heiresses from the section “Where Are You My Love?” was screened at Cinemaximum Zorlu Center with the participation of the director Marcelo Martinessi who is also among the jury of the festival’s International Competition this year. “The film industry in Paraguay is not big,” said director Martinessi, pointing out that they value each film very much and have a hard time finding trained actors, and added: “The film’s success made us all very happy. Most of the actors you see in the film are non-professionals. The lead actress Ana Brun is actually a theater actress but the last time she was on stage was 20 years ago. This is her first role on film. The shooting of the film took 42 days; the producers usually say ‘the faster you finish it, the better’ but we tried to stand up to it. Because most of the actors weren’t professional, we thought it would take time to work with them. These old women you saw have a Paraguayan sense of humor. We found these completely amateur women from the district. It took some time to work with these old women, so that’s why 42 days were barely enough.”

Photo: Elif Gökçe