The film that many Catalan teenagers were waiting for

BarcelonaAs a result of his short film Beef (2019), which starred a trap singer, director Ingride Santos (Barcelona, ​​1983) came into contact with the scene freestyle And she was completely fascinated by the energy and purity of those rap competitions where young people face off armed with improvised verses over a hip-hop beat: "They're self-organized battles where 200 to 300 people gather on the weekend, something very ephemeral that can't be capitalized on or recorded." Santos began looking for a girl to build her feature film debut around and soon discovered Latifa Drame (24 years old), known as La Tiniebla (The Darkness) in the art world, one of the young stars of that scene she wanted to capture. "She had only been to a couple of battles and already had 300 people hanging on her every word and celebrating each one." punchline and a compilation on YouTube with the best moments."

From the encounter between Santos and Drame comes the musical drama NoiseNow in theaters, it draws on the structures of musical films and sports dramas to construct a story of overcoming adversity that owes as much to the films of Andrea Arnold as to Rocky, 8 miles either Patti Cake$The film's protagonist is a girl from Montcada i Reixac who is studying a vocational course while dreaming of battles. freestyle secretly from her mother, with whom she has a strained relationship following her father's death. After a failed attempt to participate in a battle, she reluctantly contacts a trainer to help her gain confidence. It should be noted that, despite being named the same, the Latifa of Noise It has nothing to do with Drame. "Just being from Montcada i Reixac, the freestyle "And the origins in Mali," she says, "but I've never had a coach nor such a conflict with my mother; all of this is Ingride's creation."

"There are no movies for us"

The prominence of urban music and the natural way in which Drame embodies the dreams and frustrations of young people from immigrant families on the outskirts of Barcelona make Noise A film with great potential to connect with young audiences. In fact, before its official release, the film has already been screened in schools with excellent results. freestyle "It's of great interest to young people because it's the culture they consume," Santos points out. "At the Gijón Film Festival, after the screening, the students spent the whole time rapping. And for many teachers, the film is a real treat, because it gives them something to talk to their students about rhymes and language." By contrast, Noise It highlights the lack of interest in Catalan cinema in attracting teenage audiences to theaters. "I don't remember ever going to the cinema to see a Catalan or Spanish film, only American ones," Drame admits. "If you think about it, it's sad, because it means there aren't any films for us."

In one of the rap battles, an opponent provokes Lati by bringing up the color of her skin, and she turns around, pointing out the contradiction of rapping racist verses about a blessed from the producer, Dr. Derecho. In reality, she says that in the community of freestyle There is no racism: "What happens is that some people lack verbal skills and resort to aggression. But it's all a show; afterwards, we hug. The community of freestyle It's wonderful, I've been one of them since day one, and they really went all out for the film."