A Deep Look into “Circles”

The homosexuality:

I would like to emphasize that the central topic of the film is not homosexuality. Although it is a great part of the film, the story leans more towards the strong tie between mother and son.

Throughout the film, the audience will surely be awaiting the moment of a heated argument between mother and son, something that will never arrive. It is in fact one of the things that makes this film different from other productions; that confrontation will never take place because what matters in CIRCULOS is the relationship that the two characters have “is special”, a relationship that marks the jovial spirit of Araceli and Antonio’s sensibility.

I chose Antonio’s character to be homosexual because many homosexuals possess a more marked sensitivity, and if the character has been a heterosexual man, people would have been more focused in Antonio’s relationship with his girlfriend. Also, I believe it would be more difficult to understand the chemistry between mother and son if, in the film, he had the dilemma of having to choose between his relationships with his mother or to save the relationship with his girlfriend. This matter is intimately bound to the sentence that he says in the story: “Mami, when are you going to marry me?” That, besides having a metaphysical meaning, is also a resource that Antonio uses to mislead his mother on his sexual preferences and this behavior comes out of him unconsciously. Also, through this behavior he is trying to hide the trauma that he carries internally when not being accepted likewise as homosexual by such a strict society and, in certain cases, with marked traditional values.

I would like to emphasize something more; the homosexual sex scenes in the film will be done with paintbrushes, in form of paintings, to make it subtle and arrive to a point in which the audience forgets that the characters are homosexual, since what interests me the most is for the audience to see it as something normal within the story of the film, where homosexuality passes to a second place and the strengths of their love, Daniel’s and Antonio, is the main focus, together with the love of mother and son, Antonio and Araceli.

Sub-histories and audiences:

I have always admired the ability of some directors in relating parallel histories in their films, where the spectator, in many occasions, doesn’t have a clear understanding of what is going on. This is a technique that I tried to develop throughout the movie. However, the great difference is that I didn’t want the weight of those situations to fall on the shoulders of the main characters, but rather to have the secondary characters live them, with the purpose to not diminish the story of love between mother and son. This way, the common conflicts of love and indifference will be shown/told through the secondary characters, because of the way in which the intimate relationship between Daniel and Antonio is disintegrating, without Araceli realizing it. It is for that reason that no matter how much Antonio tries to hide it from his mother, Araceli has already realized the procession that her son carries within himself without a need for words.

This way, the perception of the audience will be impartial. Anybody could identify oneself with one or more characters.

Temporary turns:

The game of changes is basically to end up showing our path through life since we are born. The moments in different changes come to us in different forms from growing up, in a trip (a vacation) different things happened to us: We leave in search of new paths, to have fun, to discover new things, new experiences, and we find ourselves in a different culture, landscape, and different colors. Here in CIRCULOS, time doesn’t exist and yet it does exist. At the same time, each place, (country), could be a culmination of moments, each hair color for Araceli, be a life, and those changes to be a true acceptance, that she feels ready to leave, to go to the next life (the after life if there is one) and to explore and make new discoveries in this new life, but to fill in the gaps before leaving, before being illuminated.

The primary focus is, to mark the reason we are here, sometimes losing time in looking for something that we should know, it is in our mother earth, to know that “that something” LOVE, is our MOM. Also the changes of times are made so that the audience, at moments doesn’t know if it is a dream or if it is real, if she Araceli has already died and if she did, then to question, when did she died? For instance, halfway into the movie, when Araceli rises in the bed of the hospital and she says that she is flying, starting from that scene I want people to lose contact with the real thing and to be transported next to Araceli to her metaphysical trip and the doubt arises then whether she is alive or dead and this way to leave it in a free thought.

I want to emphasize that the beginning, when the camera goes in to that person’s (Araceli) search, taking that chilling sensation, as of death that disappears when meeting with Araceli. Because it is in fact that, the death, that energy, that bigger force that goes in search of her, but when having it in front she realizes that it is not still their moment and for that reason it disappears. Also when Antonio receives that vision and it feels that same chill, it is that they warn him, by means of an energy, (that can be her) that the time was already completed, the pain already came out, already enlightened. This way Antonio feels free of being able to express, something that was eating him inside when he loses his mother.

With the help of the magic of the images and colors of the cinema, I will be able to complete that thought and vision that I have in my head, from the moment I started writing this project. The purposes of a better visualization of what I am trying to explain, CIRCULOS will go in the directions of the mixes colors: GREEN-YELLOW for Greece, RED-ORANGE for Spain, BROWN-PURPLE for Los Angeles, BLUE-WHITE for Argentina, so that you can visualize a little more when reading the script, the purpose of taking CIRCULOS through that atmosphere that gives it final magic.

I hope I have been able to give a clear idea so you will be able to understand the message.

I invite you all to close our circles!