When in the Valencian Country the potato omelette was made without eggs or potatoes

BarcelonaIn a village in the Valencian Country where survival is the only hope for the losers of the Civil War, a housewife carefully cuts the shells off orange peels and soaks them in water to soften them. She then fries them and mixes them with a cheap flour paste. This "potato omelet without eggs or potatoes" is one of the "hunger recipes" that Celia Rico Clavellino (Seville, 1982) discovered while researching how to bring to the screen the world he described Rafael Chirbes in the novel The good letter"It was very important to me to highlight hunger, one of the hardest things there is," the director explains. "But I must say that the orange shell omelet isn't as bad as it seems; we cooked it, and it's not bad."

At the center of this story about a family devastated by the external and internal consequences of the war, the self-sacrificing Ana (Loreto Mauleón, magnificent) tries to heal the wounds of her husband (Roger Casamajor) and brother-in-law (Enric Auquer), whom they believed dead, and keeps misery at bay with creative recipes, with creative recipes, with creative recipes, sacrifice. "I wrote the character with Loreto in mind, who has something very kind in her gaze, a purity that's difficult to interpret," explains Rico, who also highlights Auquer's "powerful sensitivity," Casamajor's "grounded" firmness, and the "emotional torrent" of Ana Rujas, the character's new wife. "They're like a quartet, each with their own instrument, but at the same time forming a whole," he says.

The silence of the defeated

As in his previous films, Journey to a mother's room (2018) and The little loves (2024), what is left unsaid takes on almost more importance than what is said. "Here, silence is very important because it greatly influenced this generation," she notes. "And it's a silence with many layers, from the fear of saying what one thinks to the belief that the defeated side had to remain silent, or even the refusal to relive the trauma in order to avoid the pain." The silence ends up becoming a physical burden for the characters. "Loreto chews on all the words she doesn't say; her jaw is always tense," Rico explains. "And it became so burdensome for her that during rehearsals, she needed physical therapy sessions."

Ana also establishes an interesting dialogue with the mothers in Rico's previous films. "Those characters served as a mirror for me to see myself as a daughter and, like so many women of my generation, to reject the model they offered us," she reflects. "But through Ana, I realize that our mothers already had to reject a model, and I better understand why my generation is better off than my generation, and I better understand why my generation is better off with the legacy of that dictatorship that so marked the role of women in that country." The good letter It aims to be a tribute to grandmothers who had to bow their heads and remain silent, yet who nevertheless fought and sacrificed so their families could get ahead. The most powerful classes."