Almodóvar, on the insults to Vinicius: "It is evident that in Spain there are racists and homophobes but they are specific events"

The filmmaker affirms that he "puts his hands to his head" when he listens to the right and ultra-right: "You have to go vote"

MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, who has presented his new short film 'Strange way of life' at the Cannes Film Festival, has assured that it is "evident" that there are racists and homophobes in Spain, although he adds that these are "specific events".

This is how the director from La Mancha spoke in a meeting with journalists when he was asked if Spain is racist and homophobic, after the insults pronounced this Sunday against the Brazilian soccer player Vinicius.

"When I was little I thought that Spain was anything but racist but that changed when we came across the problem of immigration. This problem (racism) must be looked at in depth because they are not banal manifestations and they must not be trivialized. When they happen events as specific as these must be tackled at the root", he stated.

In this sense, Almodóvar rejects those statements that maintain that these insults reflect the violence that exists in Spanish society. The filmmaker has lamented that now the creators live in a "true dictatorship" due to political correctness, defined by Almodóvar as something "atrocious".

"When you sit in front of a computer to write, you are bound to be politically incorrect because you start writing about anything, no matter how light it may be, and there is going to be someone who is going to be annoyed. It cannot be that person is offended and it becomes a true dictatorship", he stated, before acknowledging that he does not feel that "dictatorship". "I write what I want to write", he has underlined himself.

Regarding the changes suffered by society, Almodóvar has compared the present with the 80s, a time he knew better, and considers that there is a "visible, tangible and palpable" democratic "decrease", despite stating that " That doesn't mean the whole country has turned back."

"In the 1980s, Madrid changed in such a way that those on the right got scared, they hid in the last corner of their big mansions, because they did not know very well what was going to happen to this country and they were very quiet. The problem now is who have a loudspeaker and pick up everything they say", he indicated.

On the other hand, Almodóvar has also referred to the upcoming 28M elections, has stressed that he will vote for the left and has insisted that "you have to vote" because of the importance of attending the democratic meeting.

"I put my hands to my head every time the right and the ultra-right open their mouths. I put my hands to my head because I can't believe that such obviously false things are said, so unfortunate, and above all in a tone in which that no profession in the world speaks so ferociously as it is done in current Spanish politics", he pointed out.

In a social key, the director has focused on trans people, an issue that "is now on the street and in families" and has defended that at the age of 16 "trans people know exactly who they are". In this sense, he has praised that "now families listen to minors."

"Trans people are self-aware from the time they are two years old, from when they start to think about themselves. And when a boy or a girl says 'I don't want to wear pants' or 'I don't want to wear a skirt', you have to listen to them. When you hear trans minors, 9 or 10 years old on television, they give soups with slingshots to any 20-year-old because unfortunately, by their nature, they have been forced to mature at breakneck speed," he explained. .

In this regard, he has ruled that a trans person does not undergo so many operations, "in which he can lose his life", for simple "whims". "Now in the plurality in which we live, part of that plurality is very ravenous and very cavernous and they are going to continue giving us problems as much as they can," she stated, after mentioning that "historical" feminists consider it to be "outrageous." "Sex change at 16 years old.

Regarding his next project, Almodóvar has indicated that he cannot reveal the title or its two main female protagonists, but he has announced that it will be an American actress and a British one. "She is not the typical Hollywood actress with an ambitious profile," she explained.

"We will shoot the exteriors in New York and we will do the interiors here in the studio. It will be a film from our production company (El Deseo) but with European capital," he confirmed.

This will be the first feature in English directed by Almodóvar, after the failed project of the film 'Manual for cleaning women' with Cate Blanchett. "I was not visualizing the film that she was making," she has confessed.

Another of the main problems that the filmmaker encountered is that the film "had become a big budget project" and that the American actors do not rehearse as much as he requests. "I don't want to make expensive films", he has sentenced himself.

However, this experience has helped him realize that he can face English-speaking projects, despite the fact that his back does not allow him "more than one trip" a year to Los Angeles.

"I want to make films with few elements, few characters, few locations and where I can go as deep as I can into the situations and characters," he reaffirmed.

Finally, Almodóvar has confessed that in Cannes they have asked him if he is considering the idea of ​​making a feature film of the film, especially after leaving an open ending.

The filmmaker indicates that the tape will not be longer, but reveals what its ending would be like. "I want it to end in a trio but you wouldn't know what would become of them either," he added.