Natalia López Gallardo is a Mexican-Bolivian film director, writer, editor, and occasional actress. She has edited films by Lisandro Alonso, Carlos Reygadas, and Amat Escalante, among other directors, and heads the high-end post-production studio Splendor Omnia. Gallardo was nominated for Best Editor at the 2008 Ariel Awards for “Silent Light” and Best Editor at the 2015 Fénix Film Awards for “Jauja” and “Heli.” As a director, her short film “In heaven as it is on Earth” was selected for Critics’ Week at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. “Robe of Gems” is her feature debut.

“Robe of Gems” is screening at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, which is taking place February 10-20.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

NLG: I have imagined this film as a collage that reflects a universe with many characters, where fear comes from not having a common goal as a society. 

W&H: What drew you to this story?

NLG: What came to me at the beginning was just the desire of an idea – an idea that was based on the necessity of one person to feel and experience another from the inside. 

That idea came to me during a period of research when I had a few encounters with mothers that have missing children. After the interviews, I drove back home feeling something uncomfortable that I couldn’t describe at that moment. Then I realized it is a kind of guilt. Driving and remembering the stories that I have heard, I felt the impossibility of feeling, at least in part, the pain of the parents with missing children. 

That feeling was the impulse force that [motivated] me through the process of this film. That feeling made me realize also that I didn’t want to use the tools of cinema to make a social or political statement, but to try to approach the spiritual wound caused by this tragedy. 

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

NLG: My desire is to have created a jar that can be filled with the subjectivity of each person who watches the film. 

I think that cinema has to be an experience — one that is linked directly to the body and guided by an intuitive process.

I spent a couple of years absorbing the themes and ideas I wanted to present in the film. Then, I wrote the first draft of the script, avoiding asking myself the “why” of each scene that was coming out. I believe that the same process could happen inside the people who will watch the film for the first time. I am sure that they will watch and then, with their own values and form of seeing life, their own rational and emotional ideas will come out. That would be the most precious reward for me.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

NLG: I consider nothing to be easy — everything is a challenge if you want to do something with your entire self. For me, writing was like climbing a mountain. So, what I find important is to have not only a desire to do a film but a deep necessity, so that force became an impulse that will push you through the process. Making a film will bring challenges of all sorts, things that you wouldn’t imagine, and you just have to find a way.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

NLG: The film is mostly financed by Mexican public funds, which are such a blessing for Mexican creators and artists. Thanks to them, Mexican cultural expressions have always been something that continued to develop — but nowadays, those funds are fighting to stay alive. 

We have also a great Argentinian co-producer: REI CINE, through Benjamín Domenech. The last part was achieved through our partners at Visit Films in the U.S. and also the producers and friends Sasha Ben Harosh and Ryan Zacarias.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

NLG: I don’t have a clear answer for this. I’ve watched films since I was little with my father. I remember that some films caused me a deep and mysterious feeling, something that I couldn’t describe at that moment. 

My father was an anthropologist and made documentaries. I accompanied him in his travels through the Andean highlands in Bolivia as a kid. He had a passion for cinema, maybe he transmitted that love to me.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

NLG: The best advice was: Construct the film in your head in every detail beforehand. Visualize every sound and situation, each color, the atmospheres, light, texture, faces, words, movement, frames size, objects, and feelings that you need to perceive, so that everything is built. 

The more you plan, the more you can be ready to face potential accidents, and bring the unexpected into the film. 

[I’ve received a lot of bad advice.] One of the more simple pieces was: In the first 10 minutes of the film, the viewer has to know what the film is about. 

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

NLG: To trust in their vision always.

Find collaborators who share that vision, and want to commit and believe in the film. 

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

NLG: Lucrecia Martel’s “La niña santa” is my favorite but I think all [her films] are treasures. 

There are many reasons why I love her films: the use of the cinematic language, especially the way she constructs space through sound; the use of dialogue as an element that is always hiding something; and maybe the most dear to me is the fact that you can feel the presence of a personal vision, something that is not so easy to find in a time of standardization.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how? 

NLG: I live in the countryside. We have managed to continue almost normally. My husband created and constructed a school in our house, so we had 20 teenagers learning, which has become a creative force for the kids and community. 

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive?

NLG: I believe that the actions needed should be decided by the right people — people who know and understand this systematic condition. I am sure that cinema and any other human area of creation will become richer if we have a wide diversity of vision. I think we must question the system and ourselves in all our actions, so that we can find a way to change from within.