Ola Mesmer’s NFTS graduate film Cuerpos employs a grounded, naturalistic visual style, using Cooke Panchro lenses and subtle camera movement. 

The movie follows a young maid’s struggle for survival amidst moral dilemmas in post-civil war Spain. 

British Cinematographer (BC): Please can you share an overview of your film?  

Ola Mesmer (OM): Set in early 1940s rural Spain, shortly after the rise of Franco, Cuerpos tells the story of a young maid, Ana, who joins the household of a wealthy Contessa. What initially seems like a lifeboat from the political terror of the outside world quickly turns into another fight for survival as fear seeps in. Ana must navigate household politics as it collapses around her.    

The film explores the behaviour of ordinary people who find themselves in a complex and dangerous situation, faced with difficult moral dilemmas and the base instinct for self-preservation.    

BC: What were your initial discussions about the visual approach for the film? What look and mood were you trying to achieve?    

OM: While the story of Cuerpos is fictional, it is set in the aftermath of a very real, and tragic civil war which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. The deep societal division and generational trauma of the civil war still echoes in Spain to this day.    

During our early discussions, Reiff and I were aware of the highly sensitive nature of the subject, so it was very important to us that we approach this film with due care and authenticity. We didn’t want to overly dramatise the look or romanticise the era, and instead tried to find a grounded, naturalist approach that would make the experience feel as real as possible for the audience.    

BC: What were your creative references and inspirations? Which films, still photography or paintings were you influenced by?    

OM: We looked at a lot of Spanish cinema that explores the Civil War and it’s lasting effect on individuals. This included The Silence of Others (El Silencio de Otros) (2019), a powerful Academy Award-nominated documentary which tells the story of the victims of the Franco dictatorship and tries to uncover secrets buried by the state, and narrative films such as Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) by Gullermo Del Toro, The Beehive (La Colmena) (1982) by Mario Camus and The Spirit of the Beehive (El Espíritu de la Colmena) (1973) by Victor Erice.    

We drew a lot of inspiration from the Chilean-Argentine drama Chile ’76 (2022) by Manuela Martelli, an atmospheric story of an older woman’s place in Pinochet’s Chile, and Roma (2018) by Alfonso Cuarón, which tells the story of a domestic maid as she works for a rich family amidst the background of a changing Mexico.    

We also looked at a lot of archive photography from rural Spain of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as paintings by Paula Rego, a Portuguese-British artist whose work was focused on women’s rights. Her painting The Coop (1997) was one of the early inspirations for Cuerpos.    

BC: What filming locations were used? Were any sets constructed? Did any of the locations present any challenges?    

OM: The film was inspired by and shot entirely on location in San Martín De Trevejo, which is a remote town in the district of Extremadura in Western Spain. Some of the sequences were also filmed in the small mountainous village of Trevejo, about a 45min drive away from San Martín.   

One of the biggest challenges was achieving an authentic early 1940s look. Although San Martín has many wonderful examples of historic buildings and properties still intact, most of them have, of course, been renovated and modernised. That meant that we had to be very careful with our choice of locations and angles – for example the rooms in Contessa’s house and its grounds were shot across four different properties – we did a lot of mixing and matching!    

We were incredibly lucky to have had the support and the generosity of the local community, who were fully onboard with the project and kindly helped us with local expertise, gaining access to shooting locations and providing many props, and even appearing in scenes as supporting artists. In our case, it really did take a village to make this film. Specific thanks to Sonia Guijarro Agero & Rafael Aguilar Moreno for gifting us their house and connections, who made this endeavour possible.    

One of our most ambitious scenes was set in the town square. The Mayor of St Martín, Ismael Frade Ambrosio, went above and beyond in helping us make the square look as close as possible to the photographs we had seen of it from the 1930s. That involved mobilising the local community to fully cover the square with sand by 6am, which wasn’t an easy task   

From the beginning we knew we would need additional help in dealing with unwanted modern elements in post. Our talented VFX department did an amazing job, especially with the wide exterior shots in the opening sequence which were particularly challenging. 

BC: Can you explain your choice of camera and lenses and what made them suitable for this production and the look you were trying to achieve?    

OM: From the beginning Reiff and I felt that the timeless look and quality of celluloid would be right for the project. We liked the texture it provides, the colour and the soft roll-off in the highlights, which we felt would work particularly well when capturing the intense Spanish sun.    

Sadly, we had to abandon the idea of shooting on film for logistical reasons, and opted for Alexa Mini instead. The cropped sensor provided us with the more generous depth of field we were after wider apertures, which was important as we were often limited on the amount of lighting power available.    

I chose Cooke Panchro/i Classics as my lens package. I love the subtle softness, the bokeh and the warmth in the skin tones that Panchros provide. To me, they have all the characteristics of a timeless, slightly vintage look with just the right amount of ‘character’.    

Also, having used Panchro Classics before on several other projects, I knew their optical qualities well and felt confident taking them into a high-contrast environment, with no risk of unwanted chromatic aberration or stronger-than-intended flares.    

I further softened the look with light-grade Black Promist filters, which were kindly provided to us by Panavision.    

BC: What role did camera movement, composition and framing and colour play in the visual storytelling?    

OM: As it is largely Ana’s story we wanted to tell it from her perspective as much as possible, which informed a lot of our camera placement and camera angle choices.    

We wanted camera movement to be mostly subtle and motivated by action, simply observing and only occasionally mirroring Ana’s internal subjective experience through slight push-ins, which were done on a slider.    

The strict catholic austerity of the era dictated the uniformity of muted tones in the costumes. This helped our characters visually blend in with the naturally-earthy tones and textures of the staff quarters, whilst making them stand out against the gold vibrancy and opulence of their mistresses’ chambers.    

BC: What was your approach to lighting the film? Which was the most difficult scene to light?    

OM: Our story is constrained to one household. While the staff are not treated well by their mistress, working for the aristocracy offers them a refuge from the terror of Guardia Civil and external political forces.    

We wanted to create a visual language where the dark, shadowy interiors of the house, although imposing, provide safety from the outside world with its scorching, relentless sun that pours through the gaps in the window blinds.    

To create pools of sunlight we worked with directional LED fixtures, including Godox Knowled 2400Bi and Nanlux Evoke 1200B, bounced into mirrors – huge thanks to Greenkit for supporting us with equipment. Using LEDs was crucial in order to keep our power consumption to a minimum. As is the case with many old towns, most of the wiring in St Martín could often be quite unreliable, so we had to be careful where we sourced our electricity from, at times requiring a generator loaned to us by kind neighbours.    

Lighting from outside the windows was particularly tricky as most rooms were up on the first and second floor, facing out on live streets which couldn’t be locked off. Luckily most of the windows had balconies, so we were able to use them to rig – big shout out to my gaffer Fabio Alonso who did an amazing job in very tricky conditions.

BC: What were you trying to achieve in the grade?    

OM: Working with our talented colourist Emma Charles we tried to subtly bring in the organic, textured look and feel of celluloid.    

Reiff was cautious of falling into visual tropes often found is period dramas, so we worked towards staying authentic to the world we found in St Martín. For us that meant avoiding desaturation and preserving the vibrancy of colours we captured on location, which helped to make the film feel more current, grounded and real.  

BC: Which elements of the film were most challenging to shoot and how did you overcome those obstacles?    

OM: Surprisingly the exteriors were quite challenging to shoot due to the weather conditions! From unexpected fog in the mountains, to consecutive days of heavy rain in what’s known as the driest region in Spain in late June, to uncharacteristic gusts of wind coming out of nowhere when trying to fly Steadicam – I feel like we’ve seen it all during our week there!    

BC: What was your proudest moment throughout the production process or which scene/shot are you most proud of?    

OM: I’m incredibly proud of my camera and lighting teams who jumped on board for what was always going to be an exciting but challenging production and supported me every step of the way: from days spent going over carnet, to driving our kit van to Spain and back, to troubleshooting technical problems on set.    

The logistical challenges of this project paired with the limitation of our budget meant that in order to shoot this film in Spain we had to commit to a very limited time frame and reduce our shooting time from the usual seven days allocated to grad films to five and a half. When I think about how tight and unforgiving our schedule was I realise how lucky we were to actually complete everything we set out to do, which wouldn’t have been possible without everyone’s hard work, dedication and willingness to think on their feet and adapt.    

BC: What lessons did you learn from this production you will take with you onto future productions?    

OM: There were so many lessons! One crucial one would be to allow as much time for recce as possible, especially in a new unfamiliar environment. Our recce was very short, with many locations to cover, which of course meant I wasn’t able to spend much time studying the light and its timings, which presented many unexpected challenges for me during the shoot.    

Oh, and never trust the weather forecast!