’21 Paraíso,’ Charting OnlyFans Impact on Couple’s Love, World Premieres at the Seville European Film Festival (EXCLUSIVE)
Néstor Ruíz Medina’s debut feature film “21 Paraíso,” will have its world premiere in the New Waves section of the Seville European Film Festival on Tuesday.
The film then goes to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, playing its Rebels With A Cause strand, with general release expected in Spain next year distributed by Begin Again Films, which has shared in exclusivity with Variety a clip from the “21 Paraíso.”
The Spanish filmmaker, whose “Baraka” was nominated for a Spanish Academy Goya for best short fiction film, returns to the Andalusian festival with a work that explores the romantic arc of a couple who expose their sexual intimacy for money through OnlyFans.
“I found it very interesting how you can expose yourself on social networks and how it affects your mental health,” Medina says. “I am interested in seeing how this capitalisation of intimacy affected a couple.”
The couple are Julia and Mateo played by María Lázaro and Fernando Barona, both of whom share writing credits with Medina. It being an explicitly intimate story, it is unsurprising the cast worked with Medina for four months prior to shooting, to construct the characters of the film and build trust to safeguard the actors. Lázaro has been friends with the director for many years and Barona and Medina met over a year ago. “We really created a small family with the crew during the shooting. In all these intimate scenes communication with the actors was the base of confidence.” the filmmaker says.
The film is set in a rural idyll, shot on location around Chipiona and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Andalusia, Spain. “The environment is essential to the story, because we are talking about different ways of living,” Medina says. “These two characters, through making money from social networks, don’t have to be in a big city to do that.”
Shot analog, in 16mm, Medina portrays 21 moments in the couple’s life, to show a relationship changing as opinions on how they make their living diverge. Time is spent with them at play, in nature, alone and with friends, many of whom are played by non-actors and locals to the area. It all helps to build a full portrait of the challenges of love.
The director believes the film may prove controversial, “I think it is important to normalize, in some ways, sex and naked bodies in the films. As spectators we are more use to seeing a murder than masturbation on the screen. For me it’s important as a creator to try to change this in the audience.”
It was produced by Cinnamon Factory, Mono con Pistolas Films and American Road Films.
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