Interview: Javier Fesser

Released in Australian cinemas last week, Camino is an extraordinary tour-de-force fot writer-director-producer-editor Javier Fasser.

The film, which collected six Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars) earlier this year, is a heartbreaking story about the death and brief life of an 11-year-old girl named Camino.

Like most girls her age, Camino spends her days indulging fanciful dreaming and juvenile infatuations. When a recurring pain in her neck is diagnosed as an extremely aggressive form of her cancer, her mother, Gloria, is convinced it is a blessing from God.

Gloria is a member of the Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic organisation said to be incredibly powerful and influential. Under instruction from her priest, Gloria insists that Camino face her death with serenity and grace, causing tension with her husband, who only wishes for his daughter’s passing to be as comfortable and painless as possible.

Javier Fesser was inspired to write Camino after reading a book about the life of Alexia Gonzalez Barros, who died at the age of 14 in 1985 and is currently being considered for sainthood.

The story led him to research the lives of similar children, all of whom apparently felt privileged to offer their suffering to God.

“In these cases, all we know is the version from the child’s parents and the church, and they are always talking about this extraordinary life, as though they were already saints,” Fesser explains.

“And reading this I thought, ‘we are talking about normal children, not saints’.

In the case of Alexia, this was a girl who died happy. I asked myself, ‘how is this possible? What is in the heart and mind of a girl in that situation?”

While Camino is not outwardly critical of Opus Dei, Fesser still attracted considerable negative attention when the film was released in Spain. When asked about the church’s reaction, he is blunt.

“Opus Dei said ‘don’t see this movie,’ without having seen the movie,” he sighs.

“I’m trying to open an interesting dialogue, but to talk about the movie you have to spend at least two hours watching the movie first.”

Incredibly, Nerea Camacho makes her acting debut as Camino, handling a very difficult role with courage and assuredness. Described as “absolutely intuitive” and “a huge talent” by Fesser, Camacho is luminous, endearing and possessed with ability beyond her years.

“In the moment that I met Nerea, after several months of searching, I thought ‘the movie is already done. I only have to shoot it and put some music to it now,’” Fesser laughs.

After such a personal odyssey to bring this tale of love and faith to cinemas, talk inevitably turns to Fesser’s own religious beliefs.

“A lot of people ask me if I am a ‘believer,’” Fesser says.

“I’m not a religious person in the way you are asking me, but I believe in love. And that’s what Camino is, a story about a first love that is able to move mountains.”

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