Víctor García addresses the “turbocapitalism” of choosing a school in ‘High abilities’: “The social elevator is a fantasy”

The filmmaker Victor Garcia Leon directs the film ‘High capacities’a story written with screenwriter Borja Cobeaga that addresses the “turbocapitalism and sensitive education” that is hidden in the choice of schools for minors.

“We are creating a worse society for our children because we are making it more segregated and unfair. The social elevator is not that it is broken but that it is directly a fantasy“, he said in an interview with Europa Press, on the occasion of the theatrical release of his film, this March 27.

The filmmaker and screenwriter explain that ‘High Capacities’ is a film about “self-deception,” with which they intend to hook viewers, even though they recognize that it is difficult to see one’s reflection in a mirror when “one is too close.” “We like to laugh at stories from before our time, but when the mirror is very close it scratches a little more. It’s like sucking on a lemon, you like it and it stings you at the same time”says Víctor García.

‘High capacities’ tells the story of Alicia and Gonzalo, played by Marián Álvarez and Israel Elejalde, respectively, a middle-class couple who face the dilemma of enrolling their son in an elite school, which could open the door to social advancement at the cost of giving up their own moral convictions.

A story that coincided with the fact that Borja Cobeaga was looking for a school for his son and, accumulating anecdotes, allowed “the script to write itself.” “We talk about parents who project their shit onto their children and who belong to a middle class who want to enter a crypto bro school. and where they say that your son can be a leader if he is trained in that school,” commented Cobeaga.

For this reason, both denounce that schools play with the aspirations and fears of parents when seeking “the best possible education” for their children. “In reality everything is a business, because there are fewer and fewer children and they have to compete for them. It’s petty,” they claim.

“The starting point was a little therapeutic in the sense of at least letting go of all the ballast and everything I have seen and putting it on the big screen. It has been very therapeutic because, in addition, I have rarely seen movies about school choice or parental frustrations.“says Cobeaga.

For their part, Marián Álvarez and Israel Elejalde acknowledge that they were struck by the fact that the film opened up “so many melons,” especially in the field of motherhood and fatherhood. “I was crying out for a comedy“admits Álvarez, while Elejalde emphasizes that the genre was a challenge and a “wonderful opportunity” for him to change his register.

Both feel challenged by the uncomfortable mirror that the film places in front of fathers and mothers who project their fears and frustrations onto their children. For example, Israel Elejalde confesses that he recognizes himself in everyday gestures such as “making the rounds” to the powerful or putting on a “mask” at parties where one does not fit in, and Marián Álvarez explains that at first he observed Alicia from a distance until he assumed it was her.

“At first I didn’t get Alicia and I didn’t understand her until I realized it was because I was Alicia.. I have done pathetic things like her and that’s when I started to feel identified. “I have realized many behaviors that I have had and that I have regarding my motherhood,” the actress confessed.

‘NO TO WAR’

Another of the fundamental characters in ‘High Capabilities’ is the one played by Juan Diego Botto, one of the leaders of the school AMPA who tries to manipulate his employee Gonzalo (Israel Elejalde) to put his son in the school where he takes his daughter.

“To build my character, it was enough for me to watch a news program to find many people like him, people who have always been upper class and allow themselves to be ‘cool’ and go down to another terrain to talk face to face, but always knowing their position and their money,” he said.

On the other hand, asked about ‘No to war’, Botto considers that the return of said slogan more than 20 years later shows “a failure of the world leaders” who have led the world and defends that ““It is a moral obligation to recover that cry that says that resolving conflicts with absurd and illegal wars does not lead to anything good.”

“I think it is a failure of world leaders who have taken us to a place in which the vast social majorities know that it is a failure. It is a moral obligation to recover that cry that says that resolving conflicts through war in this way, with absurd and illegal wars, does not lead to anything good. We have already experienced this on countless occasions. It is a failure of world leaders to return to a situation that we already know did not bring anything good. And in fact, wars are known how they begin, but not how they end. We’ve been there for three weeks and we’re seeing that nothing good is going to happen.”he assured.