Anthony Davis spoke to Claudio Zulian, the creator of the film BORN, which screened at this year’s Cambridge Film Festival. BORN follows the 18th century adventures of coppersmith Bonaventura, his sister Marianna and the rich merchant Vicenç, in the disappeared neighborhood of El Bornet in Barcelona.
Anthony Davis: So, Claudio, we’ve been chatting a bit about the historical basis for the film – how it is set in a time – and we’ve said that the time was pivotal to the history of Catalonia, but that, when one is in a pivotal time, one does not necessarily know that it is pivotal.
Claudio Zulian: It was a very important turning point in Europe and for different reasons. It was a reassessment of political gains in Europe, but, what I think was more important, was the fact that it was the rise of society as we know it today.
It was really the end of the ancient times …
AJD: Yes, and in BORN we’ve got Barcelona under siege. The lives of the people we witness are changed dramatically by a war – and by Barcelona falling…
CZ: Yes. I think, also, there is more than that, you know. There are some turning points that do not affect a longer period. But what starts at this time (it is different) and that is why I name my film BORN… It was really the end of the ancient times, when the people were the subjects of the king, and faithful adherents of the church – the start of people thinking about themselves as individuals, and having their destiny in their own hands. They could do everything. They have a full feeling of freedom and selfconsciousness. It’s also the moment in which women become subjects in writing – it is very typical of the literature of the time.
AJD: Where do you think people like John Locke or David Hume, their philosophy, started influencing people? Where do you think that this sort of individualism began?
CZ: Of course, English culture at this time was, without doubt, more aware of these changes, and I think even the more modern culture in Europe just at this time. Yet it does not mean that, in the other parts of Europe, one cannot see the rise of the same type of society… Particularly because you have different speeds at which movements rise in different places. What I find very interesting – which is where I started with studying the material of Albert Garcia Espuche [author of La Ciutat del Born/The City of Born] – is the fact that we have, in front of us, a kind of society where change in individual lives is happening.
httpvh://youtu.be/Uq8Cs3rdRbE