By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s part of the festival’s highly popular Born of Woman showcase.
The team behind BERTA gave us the exclusive first look at the teaser and poster for the unsettling short, which has its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival on Sunday, July 28 in the Born of Woman lineup. The 17-minute film is the follow-up by Spanish filmmaker Lucía Forner Segarra to her previous MARTA and DANA, and stars Nerea Barros and Elías González, with a cameo by Thaïs Blume, who played the title roles in those earlier movies. Patricia Chica was the executive producer, and according to the official synopsis, the film “tells the story of a woman named Berta who seeks understanding from a man that hurt her in the past. Although her methods might be seen as unorthodox, she’ll make her point.”
“BERTA is the story of a woman who needs her aggressor to understand the harm he caused her years ago,” Segarra says. “Because her monster, like most monsters, seems harmless and lives without remorse. And although it’s a dramatic theme, there are touches of dark humor that relieve the distress, something I enjoy and often include in my work.
“I like to tell stories of women who empower themselves,” she continues. “My previous short films MARTA and DANA also follow this line. I enjoy being with them, seeing things from their perspective, even though what they do is often questionable; I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but they all do illegal things… Like most women, I am tired of seeing men taking action and women being objectified. That’s why I create characters that I would like to see on screen with a mission to fulfill–and comfortable clothes to carry it out.”
“Lucía is such a talent, and I absolutely loved BERTA,” says Mitch Davis, Fantasia’s artistic director. “I need to mention how much I smiled when the male character in BERTA screamed out the names ‘Dana’ and ‘Marta.’ Such a great touch, and it creates a brilliant psychic link with actress Thaïs Blume and Lucía’s protagonists of her earlier works. So good!”
