Josep Maria Vilà i Álvaro Cervantes: "He was aware that he was going to die that night and he had accepted it."

BarcelonaBalandrau, wild wind It takes us back to the foot of the famous Ripollès mountain where, on December 30, 2000, a sudden and unprecedentedly violent meteorological phenomenon, a blizzard, left a tragic toll of 10 dead due to the cold, snow, and wind. Fernando Trullols' film recreates this episode, highlighting the power of nature and the strength of humanity: it focuses on the nightmare experienced by a group of five young people who had gone ski touring—played by Álvaro Cervantes, Bruna Cusí, Edu Lloveras, Pep Ambrós, and Anna Moliner. Between the Gaudí Award and a Goya Award nomination for DeafCervantes premieres a film in which he plays the sole survivor of that group, Josep Maria Vilà, a scientist who was 27 years old at the time and about to marry the woman who would die beside him on the mountain, along with three other friends.

Five years after the documentary Balandrau, frozen hell, by Guille Cascante, in which you played a witness, what did you expect from a film of that budget and scope? What expectations did you both have?

— Josep Maria Vilà: I've always asked the directors and producers to be rigorous, to treat history faithfully. I know what happened, and I was worried that it wouldn't be explained well or would be sensationalized. I can say that my wishes have been respected. I'm very happy.

— Álvaro Cervantes: I've known Fernando Trullols since I started working here, and I know his heart, his rigor, his sensitivity. I knew that in his hands, this story would resonate with what Josep Maria says. For me, it was crucial to understand that it was being conceived as a tribute to everyone involved in these events: those who participated in the rescue, those who lost their lives, and Josep Maria himself. What mattered most to me was how he would experience it. I worked for him. It seemed like very sensitive material, and we had to honor him.

When you meet Josep Maria, what do you ask him?

— BC: I asked her everything, really. We went through the events, minute by minute, and somehow she transferred the images to me. I needed to have these images in my head and for her memories to become my own.

— JMV: I was surprised by some of the questions, which I later understood were meant to establish the character: what I was like, what my relationship with Mónica was like, how we met... These are things that wouldn't appear in the film, but they were important to them, and I was pleasantly surprised, even though they were tough. These are questions journalists don't usually ask me. I opened up, and then you see the result; they really recreate what each of them was like.

What is the hardest moment between the start of the Balandrau excursion, on a sunny December 30th, and when you are rescued, as night falls on January 1st?

— JMV: The first day, the day of the blizzard, was incredibly stressful for everyone. You're there, not knowing what to do, feeling utterly alone, freezing cold. It's a situation you've never experienced before, and you don't know how to resolve it. Watching the hours tick by and things get worse, that feeling of things spiraling downward and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, ending up spending the night behind a rock with your partner who's in their final hours—it's a truly harrowing experience. And that's what I've found hardest to overcome: those moments when everything is going from bad to worse and you don't know what to do: frustration, anger, you feel awful. When you step out of the story and back into the real world, you vividly remember those moments of stress, anguish, and helplessness; that's what I've found hardest to regain: peace of mind.

What's it like to be in a blizzard?

— JMV: It's an awful feeling, a frozen hell. The wind is throwing you to the ground, and it's laden with snow, ice, and rocks, constantly battering your body and face. You can't even turn against the wind. You have to look ahead, but you can't see anything; everything is white. Visibility is zero or extremely limited; you can barely make out a parka, a single color. Luckily, we had parkas with colors, but you still can't tell if you're going up or down, or if you're to the right or left. You lose all your bearings. It's incredibly noisy, you can't talk, and coordination is extremely difficult. You have to whisper. It's a situation that spirals out of control, overwhelming. It's a very distressing moment.

What was it like in the fictional version?

— BC: Filming the blizzard scene was incredibly tough. Physically, it's the hardest thing I've ever filmed. We weren't cold because it was a studio, but to recreate that wind that swept the snow, there were enormous turbines. You couldn't hear anything either; we had to cut using a siren that signaled the end of the dam. The equipment was very uncomfortable, very distressing—it was cellulose that imitated snow, with smoke and soap. The cellulose would get in your eyes, you'd swallow it, there was a feeling of suffocation. Obviously, it helped a lot to get into character, but it was many hours, many days, and we really pushed ourselves to the limit.

Was it more difficult than filming in nature?

— BC: Much more so. Filming in nature was wonderful, although it posed a challenge for the entire team in terms of mobility. At least the sequences I was shooting—in the torrent, at the frozen waterfall, in the rocky crevice where Josep Maria spends the night—were very impressive. We were very lucky; it was sunny, not cold, and somehow you're surrounded by the beauty of nature. But what was supposed to be more controlled, the soundstage, was the hardest part. The whole crew was filming with masks and protective gear, and we were swallowing all that artificial snow, and between takes we had to wipe the cellulose from our eyes. Those were difficult days, which are obviously light years away from what the blizzard was like.

When you were filming, were you always aware that that character was very close to death?

— BC: To portray his mental fortitude, he had to be closer to life than to death. Until the moment the character is able to surrender, or rather, to accept death, I believe he is clinging to life and determination.

Did you never let go?

— JMV: I think it's the survival instinct, which I've unfortunately heard about and experienced, where you don't think you're going to die. I think that people who ultimately die do so because they believe they're going to die; that's a conclusion I draw from this. I never felt the thought of death at any point; I kept thinking, "I won't die from this, I'll pull through." It was a constant struggle to endure more hours. Therefore, my emotional side was automatically inhibited by instinct; it wasn't that I made any effort, but rather that my body decided it couldn't expend energy on sentimental, emotional, or intense matters. Now, from the outside, you think, "Wow, what you had to endure emotionally." But I was focused on the rational. I was a cold person, if you'll pardon the redundancy. I didn't cry until four days after the rescue. My body was still in the inertia of zero emotions, and I told the story without feeling, without emotion. It's the survival instinct that makes you fight, fight, fight. I liked what Álvaro said: it's not that I give up, but that I accept death. There comes a point when I do accept dying. I was aware that I was going to die that night; I knew it, I had accepted it, and I was living with it calmly. I don't know how to put it, but I wasn't even stressed. I was suffering terribly, my whole body ached, everything around me was spinning, I felt awful, I really wanted to leave, and death was a way out. Fortunately, they found me at that moment.

What impressed you most about the situation Josep Maria experienced during those three days at Balandrau?

— BC: What impresses me most, beyond specific moments, is his mental strength. I think that was my biggest challenge. It's very difficult to capture this strength in images, to explain visually and physically the situation he was in at each moment.

And what surprised you about Álvaro's performance?

— JMV: I have nothing but praise, and my gratitude to everyone involved. I wrote to him the day I saw the first screening: "Wow, it really transported me back to that place, that moment, what I experienced, what I felt, what happened to me." It truly touched my heart.

— BC: This message arrived on Three Kings' Day, the best possible gift. From that moment on, I breathed a sigh of relief. That was what mattered to me. Josep Maria gave us everything. He even left us the book he was studying for his thesis. The book that appears in the film is his. At one point, I said I'd like to underline it, but I felt bad, so I underlined it with a very fine pencil... We felt his presence at all times; he was truly with us. And not only him, but all the people who are no longer with us were with us during filming; they were very much present. In the end, we worked for them.

How do you feel about having to tell this story again? I don't know if you've already learned it well enough as a narrative and, therefore, shouldn't relive the emotions you felt.

— JMV: Yes, it's very ingrained in me; I've told it countless times. It's all in my head, organized, in its place. I can talk about it without getting emotional, without traumatizing myself, nothing like that. Obviously, this week, with so many interviews and so much focus on the story, my mind is constantly on it; it stirs things up, and anything can make me much more emotional. But day-to-day life isn't like that; I can live like anyone else.

Because the survival story doesn't end with the rescue, but with continuing with your life. And since you've been saved, make life worthwhile.

— JMV: Yes, absolutely. I didn't want to be a prisoner of the story and be limited to doing normal things. I didn't want this to be a trauma; I wanted to be free. And that meant confronting the story: talking about it, telling it, mastering it, going back to the mountains, seeing snow again, feeling the cold again. I pushed myself during these post-recovery moments—which is another phase of my story, the recovery. Thanks to this, I've been able to overcome this story, I can tell it, I can enjoy life. If you've had a second chance at life, make the most of it. This means that you should do what you love twice. For example, I really wanted to have an adventure abroad, and I've been living in Mexico for seven years. Life is beautiful; you have to live it, be able to enjoy it.