“This film can be a good cult film and a reference for people in the world of rap and music. freestylebut I have hope that it will break the mold and become a new The ball or a Neighborhood“, says Toni Carrizosa during the filming of Noisewhich takes place in the Espanya Industrial Park, in the Barcelona district of Sants and a few meters from the station of the same name.
The producer of the phenomenon House on fire, and the El Terrat series like The other side by Berto Romero or lost faggot by Bob Pop, promotes with Filmin the first film by director Ingride Santos, winner of the Goya for best short film in 2021 for Beef, a work where urban music already had an intriguing weight in the plot. Carrizosa refers to these two legendary films of Spanish cinema because the protagonists were not, in principle, professional actors but young people from peripheral neighborhoods who immersed themselves in a world of fiction with a lot of reality. In the case of Noisethe producer expresses his enthusiasm: “It will be the first film whose protagonist belongs to the second generation of migrants and who lives in the suburbs of Barcelona.”
The protagonist Carrizosa refers to is Latifa Drama, Lati, a young actress with no prior experience, of African and Muslim origin, born in Moncada i Reixac, a town in the Western Valleys region near Barcelona and from where literally leaves the train line. in two. “I recently read data that in Catalonia, 30% of people born in 2023 did not have a Spanish mother,” Carrizosa points out to give importance to the importance of Lati. “It is already a reality that will soon be given even by the Mossos d’Esquadra, but which is invisible in Spanish cinema,” complains the producer.
Latifa Drama, a cockfighting bombshell
“Noise “It wants to be an urban film that talks about neighborhoods and new urban music from the reality of the street,” explains Ingride Santos, its director. Santos assures that he intends to make “a documentary fiction film, but with very careful photography”, for which he entrusted Beatriz Sastre, responsible for the image of films like The wedding of roses. She explains that for years she has been interested in street environments where young people develop freestylea variety where the rapper does not write the rhymes, but stands out for his ability to improvise on stage.
The, and in this case the, freestylers They compete in what are called “cockfights,” where competitors take turns verbally attacking each other while using their wits to insult and denigrate the opponent. A cinematic example is the film 8 mileswhere the white rapper Eminem faces other rappers in a dialectical duel mixing wit, cruelty and lack of compassion.
Santos reveals that after the pandemic, he gradually became closer to the groups of young people who gathered in this park in the Sants neighborhood to sing their nursery rhymes and organize their own cockfights. “At first, they saw me as a strange forty-year-old who writes screenplays, but they started to accept me,” jokes the director, who adds: “I was clear that I wanted to make a film about environment environment. freestyle“.
But the trigger for the decision to do Noise met its protagonist, Lati. “It’s a bomb freestyle“, says Santos. “You have to see it in action,” Carrizosa interjects. “In the park I was hanging out with friends who were rapping and I started doing it too until a friend encouraged me to come here.” [a Sants] take part in a cockfight and that’s what I did”, says the rapper, dressed in a gray waterproof tracksuit with a hood, on which we can see the anagrams of Prada and Pirelli, two brands of young people’s taste of the environment. Lati points out that the video of her intervention went viral on TikTok, on this network you can see some of her performances under the nickname “latiniebla”.
“Guys are cool but so am I”
“When I met Lati, the idea came to me that the protagonist was a young woman of African and Muslim origin and I began to construct the subplot that would explain the conflict in her life,” explains the director. The conflict comes from the fact that Lati has a traditional mother, with strong Muslim religious beliefs, which is contrary to her daughter’s way of life. “In reality, it doesn’t happen the same way; “I get along well with my mother,” says the young rapper, smiling.
There are few girls who participate in cockfighting, only five for 150 dollars [chicos]
Ingride Santos, director
On the other hand, Lati establishes a learning relationship with Judy, played by another actress without previous experience, Judith Álvarez, a young woman from the Poble Sec neighborhood who also has a musical hobby, although in this case she is oriented towards music. r’n’b. In NoiseAlvarez is a freestyler Already retired, Lati asks her to help him progress. At first, Judy effortlessly tries to extract money from her, but she quickly discovers the young woman’s talent and gets involved.
“There are few girls who participate in cockfighting, only five for $150.” [chicos]”, explains Santos, who adds: “You have to be very strong mentally, because it is a very aggressive sport where you can receive all kinds of disqualifications. Lati nods and emphasizes, “I’m not afraid it’s a guy’s world, they try but so do I.”
In any case, Santos reveals that he conducted a foundry intense among all the young women on the Barcelona scene until deciding on the actresses who would play Judy and Lati. From there began a task of planning and training the actresses. “At first we started with an iPad on our faces so they could practice,” Santos says. “It was complicated, but thanks to an acting coach we improved a lot and now we feel ready for anything,” says Judith Álvarez, the co-star in the role of Judy.
On the way to Mexico
The filming of Noise It progressed like this until after three weeks of filming, there were two more weeks left before flying to Mexico to shoot the end of the film for another two weeks. “The budget is 1.6 million for the part shot in Spain, but with the Mexican part it will reach two million,” explains Carrizosa.
Concerning the role of Mexico in the film, the director uses the musical link between Spain and Mexico. “You get in a taxi in Mexico and you hear Héroes del Silencio on the radio,” he illustrates, emphasizing that “as soon as an artist appears in Spain, she immediately flies to Mexico to pursue her career” .
“Inside freestyle You start in the park battles and, if you excel, you move on to the national leagues, basically the FMS and the Red Bull League,” Santos continues. “But if you succeed there, you have to move on to the world leagues and in this sense, the DF has a very powerful league,” concludes the director, giving clues about the professional evolution of the protagonist of Noise. As for the first, Carrizosa mentions “September of next year at the earliest”.
