Marc Angelet: "I've always been very conciliatory; I like to establish a dialogue with my son."

BarcelonaLapland It arose from conversations with Cristina Clemente and Jordi Casanovas, its producer. The three of us have children of similar ages, and one day the topic of how we would handle Christmas came up, following the case of friends who had chosen not to trick their children into believing the Three Wise Men existed. This option seemed very radical, very disruptive.

And a family disaster. Imagine the grandparents, always eager to give gifts.

— We preferred to experience Christmas the way we had when we were kids. But all of this conflicted with the principle of an upbringing based on sincerity and truth-telling, and we understood it was good material for writing a good comedy.

And you, what did you decide to do? What does Biel know about the Kings?

— He discovered the Three Wise Men were his parents when he was eight. This Christmas was the first time he knew. He discovered it by persistently asking questions about the tooth fairy and the tió. He started asking questions, and suddenly, everything started to sink in. The tió and the Three Wise Men happened to be in the same conversation, and I really liked his question: What else did he do?

Perhaps it was time to tell him that Cercanías is also a lie.

— Suddenly, it was a shock for him to discover that a form of magic does not exist.

We too lose the magic.

— Having a child and wanting to explain to them that the world is beautiful has a lot to do with being a parent and falling in love with the world again. It happened to me. When you have a child, suddenly, one day you show them the sea for the first time. Suddenly, things that are part of everyday life for you are things your child is discovering for the first time. And you also hear that fascination he feels again. Look, the Moon! My son loved the Moon, and suddenly, I too realize how special it is to have a giant rock floating above us.

One of the things children learn is to lie to us.

— I find that moment interesting. For example, my son often tells me what they did on the playground, and suddenly, what he's explaining starts to exaggerate, and I realize that in the reconstruction of the soccer game, things are starting to be made up. In this construction of the story, the lie appears as an element of the imagination, of wanting to go beyond reality.

He wants reality to be a little more real.

— I never tell him it's a lie; instead, I choose to continue listening to the story. I even force him to keep imagining it. It's an exercise in storytelling that I find very interesting.

What are you busy with right now?

— In my parenting life, the most important aspects right now are managing frustration. We talk a lot with the parents at school about conflict management. We're parents who've grown up alongside our children. If my child is more stubborn than usual, I talk to other mothers and fathers, and they tell me the same thing happens to them, which is very comforting. You understand that everything is a phase. It helps me develop a shared understanding of how our children are growing.

What way of doing things sets you apart from other parents?

— In my case, I have always been very pact-makerI enjoyed establishing a dialogue with my son. Okay, it's time to shower. I don't want to. So instead of imposing myself, I say, "Let's see what we can do. If you want, don't shower today, but you'll do it tomorrow morning, and you'll set the table tonight. Okay?" I really like making these agreements, although they've blown up in my face a few times. But usually, consensus and compromise are built.

Tell me about a situation that makes you laugh.

— Sometimes I ask him to imitate me, and it creates a situation where there's comedy and sometimes drama, because suddenly there's a lot of truth in the way he imitates me, and then I realize some of the things I do and that I have some quirks. And in response, I imitate him back. And we play role-playing, and it's quite fun. We often engage in contradictions that I find very interesting. Sometimes the game makes us mad, but we also laugh a lot.