In ‘Three Summer Days’ by Álvaro López Alba (‘Tres días de verano’), a family on holiday’s differing view of an event threatens to drive them apart. It follows a father and his two children on a beach holiday. The young girl, Cris, has fallen for a boy, causing a rift in her friendship with boyfriend Miri. Her brother Dani feels isolated and spends the summer in his room, fixated on Miri.
Meanwhile, their father is involved in a secret affair that he desperately tries to hide from them. During these three days on the beach, the family will struggle to reconnect as insecurities, jealousies, and hidden truths unravel their close-knit world.
“I based the story on personal experiences and those of my family and people around me,” López Alba said Varietywho only started making short films about six years ago, and seriously for the past three years.
Given his experience as a psychologist, especially with young people, he has collected abundant material that has formed the basis for the three short films he has made so far: ‘Rosebud’, ‘La Mancha’ and ‘Eli’. ‘Three Summer Days’ is his feature film debut.
Developed during the Incubator program of the Madrid Film School (ECAM), “Three Summer Days” is one of ten projects in development that participated in the ECAM Forum, the first co-production showcase of the prominent Madrid Film School last June. Family drama also participated in the EGEDA Next Gen FilmLab, where it won the award for best project.
“The structure of this film, in which we re-examine the events of a weekend three times and from three different perspectives, creates a kind of everyday thriller, in which our prejudices and expectations are constantly confronted with a more complex, familiar reality, sometimes dark and different. times clear. It is a film with a strange atmosphere where cruelty and tenderness always go hand in hand,” says producer Nuria Muñoz of Nexus CreaFilms, who first collaborated with López Alba when she produced his third short film, “Eli.”
López Alba drew inspiration from the narrative structure of Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” and even more closely from Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster,” which won the Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at the Cannes Festival and ultimately competed for the Sebastiane Best Movie Award. annual San Sebastián Festival. In “Monster,” a mother suspects something is wrong at her child’s school and confronts his teacher. As the story unfolds from their different points of view, the truth gradually emerges.
According to Muñoz, they will likely shoot the film in Murcia, where she and López Alba live. They hope to take advantage of available regional, state and federal funds. Since a year ago, Murcia has been offering help to non-residents of Murcia who want to shoot feature films or series in the region. This is in addition to existing incentives for short films, development, production and distribution for residents of Murcia. The new incentive has lured a growing number of projects, Muñoz said.
For Nexus CreaFilms’ first feature film, “Sorda” (“Deaf”), which was shot last summer, the main partners were Catalan production companies A Contracorriente and Distinto Films, so they could benefit from the new film incentive.
Directed by Eva Libertad, “Sorda” turns on a woman whose pregnancy raises fears about motherhood and whether she will be able to communicate with her child.
For “Three Summer Days”, co-producer Sideral Cinema, from Madrid, and Nexus CreaFilms have been in discussions with potential partners from other areas since the ECAM Forum.