A fifth Portuguese interview manolo alone (actor) Avelina Prat cinema seriously

Can we change what we have to live? Fight against the past, leave everything behind … Is it possible to live another life? Escape from these haste that we and I have every day … live the life of another, perhaps? Is it worth running away? Stop this rhythm, go to an idyllic place where nobody throws us absolutely anything? We are talking about A fifth Portuguesea movie that has liked a lot at the Malaga Festival where it was screened in the official section. She is the second film by director Avelina Prat and is the new leading role of Manolo Sol Pulp Fiction o Airbag.

Good afternoon, welcome to the SER chain. How about Malaga? Is it raining a lot?

Manolo: A little seems to have rained. But that is very good for plants and it was like being in the Fifth Portuguese.

A fifth Portuguese It is a very quiet film and also affects the clash of cultures that also proposed the first Avelina Prat movie, Vasil where you already had that contrast between a Spanish character and a character from an east country. Any link out there or has it been simply chance?

Velin: I have always been very interested in all migratory movements, of all kinds. The stories of those people who have their origin and their roots in one place, but ends up making their lives in another. I always wonder what decisions there is behind that, how much there is by chance, how much there are will, of need. And I don't know, it's a type of story that encompasses all this. Regarding similarities with Vasilbecause it has not been sought, or voluntary, but it is true that in the end they are the issues that one carries in the head and appears.

Manolo only plays a geography teacher. We see at the beginning how he is giving a class at the university and ends in Portugal taking care of something as complex as a fifth, where you have to be a specialist gardener.

Manolo: He is a cartography specialist. Pro cartographer. Start with the earth on paper, with maps, specializes in maps and then stained your hands. From theory to practice.

At the start of the movie his wife leaves him, he undertakes an escape and meets a series of characters that do not throw anything in his face. How did you face this character and his trauma?

Manolo: The characters of A fifth Portuguese The movie gives space to the other, they are not invasive, they are not in a hurry, they do not question, listen and observe. And it is a mutual thing that travels both ways, in each relationship. He is a character who has everything under control, who has a very established routine, a character in a certain gray way, who is from his home, from his home with his wife to the faculty, who hates traveling and, suddenly, the inexplicable escape of his wife, takes him out of his surroundings, from his home and himself … and the fifth is something that is coincidentally, he crosses him on the road. It is a train to which it goes underway and does not know what stops it has. He has a slight idea where he is going and what he will have to do, but very little more. But it is thrown. A person who is so little given to improvisation and who has everything under control, suddenly gets into a maelstrom that is a supplant, neither more nor less.

Yes, it is true that people who do not require them to be really identified and that Each one has respect for the other times of the other and a need for personal times and processes. And do not judge each other. Thus finds a site that seems to be peaceful, a good site a priori to transplant, as if it were a metaphor of a plant that he takes care of.

A fifth is a wonderful type of house that exists in Portugal. That is like an oasis, a place in the middle of nowhere, almost out of time. What attracted you to the fifth? Why did you choose a fifth and not any other place?

Velin: As one of the characters says, when he speaks to Fernando de la Quinta, it is like a place to disappear, which is exactly what he is looking for. Then, we were looking for that type of timeless, old house, but that are still in operation today, far from the urbanized areas, far from the noise, that gave a bit mysterious, magical, far from everything, and that defined very well the character that inhabits it, to this amalia that will receive it.

A fifth Portuguese The idea of ​​continuing to progress, not to leave things as they are, try to evolve. This is the protagonist decides to plant almond trees and thus not leave the dead ground.

Manolo: The possibility of closing stories are raised, both with respect to Fernando/Manuel, and in the fifth, with the past of Amalia, as in that final stretch. In the end it makes the decisions they make, as others could have been the same, but it is true that the fifth has an effect, in a sense, healer for him.

How has it been to work with María de Medeiros who plays the owner of the fifth?

Manolo: A total luxury is wonderful, humanly and professionally. In principle I was a bit overwhelmed, but she makes everything very simple and very easy in the deal. It is very close. It transmits that halo of fairy that has both her and her character, of a luminous fairy-bruja, which is fantastic for the character of Amalia. It is very enigmatic.

Did you be clear from the beginning that you wanted Maria for the movie?

Velin: I had Manolo clearer, starting (laughs). But then, immediately, when pre -production started, the idea immediately arose … What happens is that, of course, the first option that one comes to mind when you think of a Portuguese actress is María de Medeiros, but I did not dare, I did not think it was an option, but the producer encouraged me: «Why not? Let's ask him ». The script was read and loved, so he pointed immediately.

Avelina Prat and Manolo alone, it has been a pleasure to have you here today. Likewise, we wish you all the luck in the world, thank you very much.

Interview issued in today Malaga on March 18, 2025 held by Paco Casado and Esther Luque during the 28 Malaga Festival.