Transitions: Meet the gripping drama shot at the height of the pandemic without a script or production crew

In the midst of so much pain and unwanted goodbyes, an even more throbbing and voracious creative vein was emerging in artists around the world. With feature films shot in the most unusual way possible, Hollywood and the independent film industry have thrived amid the pains of the Covid-19 pandemic, proving how much the art of emotion through cinema remains alive. .

Rookie filmmaker Alejandro Torres Kennedy is the product of that same creative force that has also spawned several original titles such as A Click Away and Close to the Apocalypse. In Transitions, he makes his directorial and scriptwriting debut with a delicate and thought-provoking feature film, which is nothing more than a portrait of the artist’s own unexpected experience of social isolation following the pandemic.

“The story of the film is directly linked to the pandemic, because I arrived in South Africa to take a boat trip across the Atlantic. Interestingly, I was going to travel to Brazil for a month, I was going to do one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips. As we were about to leave, eventually the pandemic hit and we were forced into lockdown. We spent five months in the marina, sleeping on the sailboat and confined to a very limited space. We were a group of 12 isolated people, who could not even return to their families,” Alejandro recalls in an interview with CinePOP.

In Transitions, Marie Suberbie is a woman placed in exactly the right circumstances. About to embark on an unimaginable journey, she is forced to anchor her plans and dreams in enforced isolation. Literally stuck, she will come face to face with her fears, her memories, and her own inner nature as she begins to be tormented like a mysterious force.

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Although the supernatural aspect is not part of the reality of Kennedy and the other tourists moored in the South African marina, the filmmaker used the scenario of the unusual and unprecedented world to tell his own story, which unfolded freely without a script, always guided by the constant real twists that slap the newspapers daily, as he told CinePOP.

“The film had no script, never had, it was just an idea in my head. And the story is about a woman who, during the pandemic, finds herself alone at the marina. So the production brings the same context that we were going through at that time. And over time, as the information was updated around the world, I developed that material. But everything was written while we were recording,” the director said.

Generated in a context where all he had left was a small camera, a microphone and the art of improvisation, Alejandro invited one of the tourists to play in Transitions. Marie Boutonnet had never played before, but she took up the challenge of being the face of all this torturous journey of confinement, fear and frequent doubts.

“She had no experience, but she accepted my proposal. And there, Maria went from French teacher to actress for the first time and it worked!

Shot during the five months of confinement, Transitions had no reshoots and was cut in the editing room, from an edit that caused the most diverse sensations in the public, as the filmmaker points out. Launched first-hand at the 2021 Warsaw Film Festival in Poland, the drama’s presentation was a real surprise for Maria and the Spanish filmmaker – who fulfilled their dream of seeing their powerful work of art on the big screen in front of an international audience.

“The film had its premiere in October last year and until then I had not let Maria watch a single scene, because I wanted this experience to be unique and surprising to have on the big screen. So when we went to Poland for the premiere of Transitions, it was the first time he saw the film. Inside a session, alongside a Polish audience. It was incredible for her, in addition to ‘to have been a dream come true to see yourself on the screens of a movie theatre,’ concluded Alejandro Torres Kennedy.

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