‘As Neves’ Director Sonia Mendez Discusses Hyper-Connected Youth, Shock of Adulthood, Working With Film Composer Andy Bell
variety.comEd Meza @edmezavar In her feature film debut, “As Neves,” writer-director Sonia Méndez follows a group of teenagers in a Galician village struggling with the disappearance of a friend following a drug-fueled party and heavy snowfall that has cut off Internet access, complicating the search.
In her feature debut, which screens in competition at the Malaga Film Festival, Méndez was eager to explore a number of elements, she tells Variety, namely the youth of today, which she describes as the most hyper-connected generation — even when they live in such isolated areas as the mountain village of As Neves.
She was also keen to examine the often violent transition to adulthood. Having experienced adolescence in the 1990s and belonging to the last generation caught between the analog and digital worlds, Méndez was fascinated by the “coexistence of both paradigms,” particularly among teenagers who live in isolated areas but are nevertheless always online, “which is very common in Galicia.” Méndez points out, however, that the most important thing in her film “is how what happens transforms the teenagers — the feelings, the fears, the emotions.
I really love the way young people feel things for the first time, with so much intensity – whether its feeling love, feeling sadness, it’s very pure and it’s very frightening.
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