“Everyone knew that Pujol had a hidden agenda.”

BarcelonaThe last film that Manuel Huerga directed with a script by Toni Soler was April 14. Macià v Companys (2014), a fake television report about true events: the fleeting proclamation of the Catalan Republic and the political rivalry between Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys. Our Father, the new collaboration between Huerga and Soler, symbolically picks up that thread with an aerial tracking shot that covers half of Barcelona: from Montjuïc Castle, where Companys was executed in 1940, to the official car in which Jordi Pujol traveled in 2014, days before confessing to the hidden fortune in Andorra; that is, from the physical death of the 123rd president of the Generalitat to the political and reputational death of the 126th.

A Our Father, which premieres this Friday, Huerga and Soler approach Pujol and his family's fall from grace through fiction, not with documentary or journalistic intent, but rather as an opportunity to explore the complexity and contradictions of an almost incomprehensible character. "That he is such a multifaceted figure with so many layers was what motivated us to make the film," explains Soler. "There is an idealistic Pujol, an activist Pujol, a banker Pujol, a fraudster Pujol, a statesman Pujol, and they are all true and complement each other."

For the film's screenwriter –and also producer with Minoria Absoluta–, "the key to the character's comeback" lies in the scene that imagines a meeting between Pujol and Father Ballarín, "a person who loved Pujol and, at the same time, was ethically demanding" who reminds the politician how easily being reminded of a politician serves ambition." Or, in Soler's words, how "idealism leads Pujol to think that the best thing for Catalonia is for him to be in charge." His downfall, the screenwriter admits, has a "tragic" dimension in the sense that "he dedicated himself heart and soul to an objective that he himself endangers because power generates a feeling of impunity."

To embody such a well-known character, Our Father makes a risky decision that turns out to be the right one: Josep Maria Pou, an actor almost two meters tall, takes on the role of the protagonist. Huerga acknowledges that Pou was already included "in the pack" of the film when he was offered to direct it, but he takes on the decision with enthusiasm. "It seemed perfect to me because it saves you the question of characterization," says the director. "With Pou, all we have is a great actor playing a character called Pujol. And when the film starts and you see Pozo, that's it. The viewer knows it's Pujol and isn't distracted by wondering whether he looks like him or not."

The first filming on a virtual set

The other daring decision of Our Father is to shoot the entire film in the studio with the backgrounds recreated digitally on a chroma key screen, a more common system in blockbusters fantasy than realistic chamber dramas. "It's the first film shot 100% on a virtual set in Spain," Huerga proudly states, wanting to avoid the film having a conventional look. "A set allows you to move walls and doors and be more creative with the camera, because you can move it better," says the director, who describes himself as a "restless person" who needs to do things "a little differently." Thus, Our Father It was shot in just 20 days, but required many months of pre-production to create the backgrounds and fine-tune the image.

The artifice becomes evident in the final scene, when the digital set begins to disappear as Pujol dresses and prepares to leave a house that is gradually shedding its virtual nature. There is a certain coherence of form and content in the gesture: the dismantling of an artificial construction as a metaphor for the demolition of Pujol's image and legacy. "You can make this reading," says Huerga. "The final plan shows that everything is a lie or a farce, everything is theater. I really like the breaking of the fourth wall and the metalanguage. If Our Father If it had ended with Pujol wondering which street in Barcelona he would have been assigned to, it would be a completely different film."

For Huerga, filming Our Father It has had a special meaning, but not because it was affection for the protagonist but because in 2010, on the occasion of Jordi Pujol's 80th anniversary, he filmed a documentary about a long conversation between the politician and Miquel Calçada (Jordi Pujol, 80 years old). Clearly, there's a great distance between the two works in terms of how they view the character. "This time it's a revisiting of the myth," he says. "I never voted for him, right? Everyone knew Pujol had a hidden agenda. But that's normal; when you've been in power for 23 years, you think you're immune to punishment."