Director Elena Tara, Not Alone Producers, Talk ‘Ripli’

variety.com:

ECAM alum, she participated in this year’s Incubator, Madrid’s prestigious development program that catapults emergent Spanish talent.

Spain’s Goya Award-Winning director Enrique Urbizu (“No Rest For The Wicked”) acted as mentor, and with that helpful nudge, Tara finalized a version of the script she’s happy to advance.

The final narrative includes a genre filmmaking bent, with the videogame element central to the plot, yet, Tara insisted, “My proposal from the beginning has always been to do something much more naive, innocent on a formal level.” She added: “The genre aspect is a vehicle to tell this story, but only that; just as the Western motif appears, but it’s not a Western.” The film seeks to destigmatize mental illness and as the protagonist finds herself drawn to the curious title character within the game, the weighty discourse unspools.  “It’s the story of someone who needs to accept themselves and stop judging, I continue discussing what I’ve been discussing in all of my short films: How the violence of the system is so naturalized and integrated, that we exercise it against ourselves in a way that’s not been talked about as it should be,” Tara explained.

Produced by Eva Moreno and Cristina Urgel, founders of Spain’s Not Alone Productions, the project is currently in its fundraising stage. “We’re trying to find a co-producer to embark on the project.