Issa López interview for Tigers Are Not Afraid.
Tigers Are Not Afraid is easily my favourite film of 2018. It might not have got a UK cinema release yet, but I’ve been in love with this film since I covered it for Glasgow Frightfest in February. It’s a wonderful mix of real-world and fairy-tale, telling the story of a young orphan girl who finds herself at war with the local Mexican drug-cartel. The film is the brainchild of Issa López, a very talented writer/director, who is sure to have a very bright career ahead. We caught up with her after our second viewing of Tigers Are Not Afraid to find out more about the film, and sought answers to the two burning questions everyone has – when can we own the film, and how do we get one of those cuddly tigers?
The film is both incredibly real, but then also has this element of a fairy-tale, how important was it to you to make sure you got that balance?
I think that that is what has given wings to this film because there are incredible, amazing, movies about the harsh reality that children face, not necessarily in the context of the drug war, but at war. We’ve seen Salaam Mumbai, we’ve seen this. It has been so well done that I didn’t feel there was a point in going there again, in the same vein, if I didn’t have something new to add… We have seen amazing and great adventures with a gang of children from Stranger Things to it’s parent The Goonies you know? But we have not seen that put together in a way that you are following an adventure, and you’re following a fantastic story, and you’re following a ghost story. But you’re receiving also a completely real story of what’s going on in many, many countries.
Issa López interview for Tigers Are Not Afraid.
The children are just amazing. You were saying at the Q&A that you went through about six hundred children, how important was it to make sure you got exactly the right ones?
Everything! One of them not being the right actor could have ruined everything else in the movie. I needed a feeling of other reality so that the fantastical elements would be very unexpected, and in a way shocking. We are used to seeing fantastic elements incredibly well executed in very glossy movies all the way to Ready Player One. We’re not used to seeing those fantastical elements in a feeling of almost documentary realism. I needed those performances to get there. I needed five children that could actually not act, because what they’re doing in the movie is not acting. They’re going through the experiences and the emotions. One of the things I did is I didn’t ever show them the script. They never read a single word of it. We shot chronologically. So during preparation, we created the universe, the characters, the relationships, but they didn’t know what was going to happen to these characters. They discovered it along the way of making the movie. Believe me, there were times when they were not happy as you can imagine with what was happening. They were in true shock, and they were mad. I would use that. So many of the reactions you are seeing are authentic to revelations of what happens in the plot.
Most important question, when can I have this film in my hands? I need a copy of this film!
Thank you. We’re in the process of finally… it’s been a really complicated way, but of closing the deal of – international distribution is already taken care off – but English speaking territories are finally going to be solved. What I don’t know is if we are going to have a Blu-ray. I am desperate for one because I also want it. I also want to put in it so many extras, so much material that I have with these children, with creating this universe, incredible photography, the children improvising in the workshop. We have amazing stuff that I want to put out together.
Issa López interview for Tigers Are Not Afraid.
Should you ever go into merchandising, I will take about ten of those little tigers…
There’s been so much talk about the tiger in social media. They’re handmade, they’re kind of a Frankenstein, taking a part of this and a part of that. We had three for the shooting of the movie. One is the one I carry around with me, which is the original one. The other one was a double in case, and the third one we sacrificed to make the movie because in order to scan it for the VFX they take it apart. I didn’t know, I was in shock. So we lost that one. Then when the movie opened in Mexico, me and the producer ordered another set of twenty to send to some theatres in Mexico. We only saw four coming back to us. One was kept by the producer, I gave one to Guillermo del Toro, the other two were for people who championed the movie, people who helped us along a very hard way to get this movie made and then seen. But if it explodes in the way that we want it, we would be so happy to make the tigers and get them out there, people love them.
You mentioned Guillermo del Toro, he saw the film, loved it, and he’s now producing your next film. What’s that collaboration been like?
It’s amazing and he is gorgeous. I’m in awe. Every time Guillermo gave me an idea and I run with it and came back with ideas to him. Every time I’d throw an idea he has an incredibly clear mind and in a single conversation can say, ‘this will work, this won’t work, that is brilliant, this is bullshit’. He’s so right. I’ve been writing for twenty-five years and I argue everything. With Guillermo, my first reaction is to go ‘no’, but then I go on the paper and realise that he is right. He carries the heaviest cultural baggage you can imagine. He knows everything about plastic arts. He knows everything about literature, everything about music, everything about cinema down to the lens’ that were used in Abel Gance’s Napoleon in 1927. It’s crazy! He’s a walking and talking endless bank of cultural riches that you can tap on to make your movie better. So I feel so blessed.
Tigers Are Not Afraid screened at Arrow Video Frightfest 2018 and will hopefully be available to own very soon. Read our review here.
