13/08/2024 - The Catalan filmmaker discusses her newest film, a genre-bending look at postpartum depression and the irrational aspects of motherhood

Catalan filmmaker Mar Coll premiered her newest film, Salve Maria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mar Coll
film profile], in Locarno as part of the festival's International Competition, and introduced Laura Weissmahr as the shining star in this genre-bending look at postpartum depression and the irrational aspects of motherhood. The film is based on Basque writer Katixa Agirre's novel Mothers Don’t, which Mar Coll approached in a fittingly cinematic way.

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Cineuropa: I have to say, Salve Maria affected me very deeply, to a surprising degree. It was a challenge to separate the critic in me from the woman. But I worried for Maria, not for her baby.
Mar Coll: We knew that was a very delicate matter. I thought the main character may provoke some antipathy because she is not able to bond with her baby, who is so cute and vulnerable. We knew that the success of the film depended on the way you relate to her, and so we tried to stay very close to her. We wanted to make a moving film, instead of being critical or distant. Although, in the work we do, some part of the audience will always feel left out.

Perhaps this is a wider question, but do you feel like there are liminal experiences that remain unshareable, unless you already have lived through them yourself?
That’s a question I ask myself when I have to choose the actors for my films, whether you need an actor who has been through the experience to really communicate the emotions and such. I don’t really think it's necessary! I think Salve Maria is also about guilt, anguish, more universal things, and of course, it’s about motherhood in the end, but perhaps anyone who has felt like they’re not a good person, that they’re doing something wrong can understand her. So it’s not just about being a mother, but also about feeling wrong, feeling like a monster. 

How much of that fed into the work with the main actress, Laura Weissmahr?
Her role was very difficult to cast because the first intention we had was to cast someone well-known, for many reasons, most of them financial. But when I found her – and this is the first film she’s done – I thought she was perfect. She had this fragility and she’s super photogenic in a very special way. Also, her eyes! In the film, she always seems tired, so expressive…

I was wondering, was that look enhanced by makeup?
No! We had just one person doing make-up and I specifically asked them not to do much on Laura. Her hair, on the other hand, was very important, because it’s bleached blond… 

But you can tell by how much her roots have grown out, how long it has been since she last did something for her looks.
Exactly. If you put some makeup on Laura, she visibly transforms, so it was super important to get the character right. I begged the makeup person not to put any concealer, not to touch the bags under her eyes. “It’s important!” is what I would say. 

The film is also based on a novel. What is it like, for someone who hasn’t read it? 
It’s very different, because it mixes styles and approaches: journalistic, essayistic, and novelistic all in one. It’s written in the first person, and the plot concerns the crime the main character is obsessed with. We were interested in how one becomes obsessed with an infanticide and the book talks about motherhood and the taboo, and about plenty of things that are also in the film, but we’ve come quite far from the book. Although, I think the spirit of the book is still preserved in the film, and, of course, the main plot is, too. But there, the writer doesn’t have such a big conflict to deal with; she’s just investigating on her own. We also thought that it was a good idea to represent motherhood with this particular film language, because motherhood itself can be dark and irrational, so it already has the perfect elements to make a genre film, with a horror undertone as well.