After 25 years of acting career, Bárbara Mori begins her path as a director with the short film “More Strong than Fear”, a project based on her childhood and with which she seeks to combat violence against children.

“In the pandemic I wrote a script, I really wanted to direct for many years, I studied film direction at the New York Film Academy and from there it made me want to write my story”, the actress told EFE.

Mori (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1978) was the face of the “Zero violence against women” campaign that the Guanajuato Film Festival promotes year after year.

In this space, the actress from “Rubí” (2004) was able to present “Stronger than fear”, her first directing project that functions as a preamble to what will be her first feature film.

In this one, two girls are seen playing with the family inside an open cage, as a metaphor, on a dock facing the sea. The stories posed by the little girls in their imaginations confront the viewer with the painful and violent context that they live in their homes, they speak of a mother who is beaten and an alcoholic and violent father, but all from the child’s gaze.

“This project is very angered, when we got to the recording location I didn’t know there would be a cage and when I saw it I said, Oh my God! This was sent to me, it is perfect for the story we are telling”, she reports.

As he considers, the cage symbolizes the vision of the father of the girls that contains them, that in their childhood vulnerability they cannot escape.

“You are so small that it is like a prison, that person is teaching you what the world is from their eyes, it hurts you so much and at the same time you cannot get out of there but at the same time you could run away”, she comments.

The photography direction was in charge of Sarasvati Herrera, who has worked in films such as “La Mami” (2019) or “Esto no es Berlín” (2019), and the production was in the hands of her partner, the producer and director Fernando Rovzar, who has participated in projects such as “Monarca” (2019) or “Mentada de padre” (2019).

Adapting to the role of director was not difficult for her, as she considers that throughout her career she has liked to get involved in many areas of production that transcend the acting part and she describes her personality as that of someone “perfectionist”. “I felt like a fish in water,” said the actress.

A MESSAGE AGAINST VIOLENCE

A few years ago Mori decided to open up and tell about the strong episodes of violence that she and her siblings suffered in their childhood at the hands of their father. “The feature film has many fictional things that I did not experience, it has things based on my childhood but it is not my biography”, she stresses.

The actress, who at 43 years old is the grandmother of little Mila Mayer Subtil, hopes to send a message of strength to those who are victims of the situations she went through and hopes that her work will contribute to stop these types of stories.

“The film touches on child violence, but in general it talks about violence and with the pandemic it has been greatly exacerbated, I am telling this because I think it can make a difference, I try to make those who are experiencing this see that there may be a light in the path”, comments Mori.

Due to the pandemic, the actress has seen how some of her projects have been put on hold, including the movie “Tú eres mi problema”, by Álvaro Curiel, which was recorded during these turbulent times in Baja California Sur.

In addition, the actress received very good reviews for her most recent film “Everything invisible” (2020) and is about to close a contract for a film about which she can not anticipate anything.

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