Suro: Mikel Gurrea in Conversation

Suro: Mikel Gurrea in Conversation about the Filmmaking Process

Mikel Gurrea talks to members of the cast and crew about the filmmaking process behind Suro, which opens l’Alternativa 2022.

In 2010 I worked as a traginaire, or seasonal worker, harvesting cork in woods to the north of Girona. What I discovered there was a world rich in textures, sounds and rhythms. This evocative universe and the contradictory feelings it stirred in me led me to write my first feature.

Throughout the filmmaking process, we never lost sight of what we were trying to achieve: a subjective, fiction film kept taut by the constant tension between Elena’s and Iván’s different perspectives. In the film, what started out as a shared endeavour soon begins to fray at the edges when the couple come into contact with their new surroundings in the countryside.

This gave me the idea of mixing the two professional actors with a supporting cast of natural actors who worked in the woods. It also drove home the need to create a powerful cinematic landscape.

Inspired by the striking image of cork being peeled off the tree, its bark being stripped away, we set out to make a film about tension: the tension between ideas and reality, between projecting and putting into practice, between the image we present and what we actually do.

Mikel Gurrea will be joined by producer Laura Rubirola, co-screenwriter Francisco Kosterlitz, director of photography Julián Elizalde, art director Isona Rigau Heras and sound designer and mixer Xanti Salvador.