{"id":212851,"date":"2025-11-13T16:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=212851"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:13:44","slug":"mauricio-freyre-estados-generales-hbf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/mauricio-freyre-estados-generales-hbf","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere is still so much to fight for, to rethink, to imagine\u201d: Mauricio Freyre on Estados Generales and the support of HBF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe Hubert Bals Fund is like a breath of fresh air that makes you want to finish your project with renewed energy. It allows you to have a different kind of relationship with your film\u201d, says Mauricio Freyre, writer and director of Estados Generales<\/strong>, a project supported by the HBF+Europe Post-production Support scheme in 2024, and having its Dutch premiere at IDFA<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Film still: Estados generales<\/strong> by Mauricio Freyre <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With delicate and meditative cinematography, Freyre presents a reflection on the legacies of colonialism that persist today. The Peruvian filmmaker discovered a forgotten, silenced, archive in the Botanical Garden of Madrid: Estados Generales <\/strong>is his artistic intervention in that space. He speaks with us about the process behind this production, his first feature film, which builds a bridge between Spain and Peru, mirroring the spirit of IFFR\u2019s HBF+Europe funding scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe spectral quality of the archive: that possibility of becoming something else, of having a voice and agency.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His project began in the Botanical Garden of Madrid. Drawn by its architecture, Freyre started researching and noticed a herbarium closed to the public, containing seeds extracted from Spain\u2019s South American colonies, kept in a box labeled \u201cFrutos sin nombres\u201d (\u201cUnnamed fruits\u201d).

He decided to bring the seeds back to their place of origin: \u201cI was already planning to make a journey.\u201d In the second part of the film, we arrive at the Chincha Valley in Peru, a place that \u201cstill bears the legacy of the colonial world\u201d, where the extractivist exploitation of the land continues under new capitalist forms. With the simple act of planting the seeds back, Estados Generales<\/strong> seeks to \u201cquestion the mirrors and echoes of the colonial and capitalist narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film moves between documentary and fiction. What interested Freyre was \u201cthe spectral quality of the archive: that possibility of becoming something else, of having a voice and agency.\u201d The seeds are \u201cthis forgotten, degraded material, that cannot be entirely destroyed \u2013 it exists, it\u2019s there.\u201d That subtle, almost magical sensitivity of the film is beautifully conveyed through Marta Sim\u00f5es\u2019s cinematography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI had some complex ideas for the end of the film and without the fund, I couldn\u2019t have developed them. It would have been impossible.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On set of Estados Generales,<\/strong> by Daniela Muttini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Shot on 16mm film, the film has a spectral touch: \u201cBy shooting on film, we absolutely needed production support. I had a lot of faith in the HBF.\u201d Freyre is very much drawn to this kind of practice: \u201cNot being able to see the material immediately brings a certain clarity.\u201d The analogue format, essential to the project\u2019s spirit and materiality, was nurtured through the crucial support of HBF, resulting in an image of exceptional sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freyre describes the support from the Hubert Bals Fund as a \u201cfinal push\u201d to carefully craft the dialogue between sound and colour, which was essential to the film: \u201cAll of that would have been lost without the Fund; the impulse it gave was very important,\u201d he says. The aesthetic carries a weight, a magic, that reveals deep care and attention. \u201cI had some complex ideas for the end of the film and without the Fund, I couldn\u2019t have developed them. It would have been impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freyre already knew about the Fund, and it had long been one of his career goals: \u201cI had it on my radar; I\u2019d seen films financed by the fund, and of course, I trust it a lot, I love working with Dutch institutions.\u201d He\u2019s been following the HBF\u2019s work for a long time: \u201cI found some notes from 15 years ago that said, \u2018Funds I need to get: HBF\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is still so much to fight for, to rethink, to imagine.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Highlighting films like Estados Generales<\/strong> \u2013 in which the smallest gestures carry deep meaning \u2013 is part of HBF and IFFR\u2019s DNA. The seeds that Freyre and his team plant in Peru become both a symbol of renewal and a political gesture. \u201cRewritings are necessary,\u201d Freyre says, and institutions like IFFR and the HBF are \u201ca true gift. The care they put into this kind of project is extraordinary.\u201d The film carries a message of hope: in this fast-paced world driven by immediacy, what is small and subtle can still transform reality. As Freyre says, \u201cIn places where you think everything is lost, it\u2019s the opposite \u2013 everything is yet to be written. The future will emerge from these other ways of seeing. There is still so much to fight for, to rethink, to imagine. The world cannot remain as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 by Paula Estany Hachuel<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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