From the Oscar with ‘Moonlight’ to the saga of ‘The Lion King’: Barry Jenkins finds a blockbuster “in which to contribute something personal” | Culture | EUROtoday

It is among the missiles that Disney launches at Christmas billboards around the globe: Mufasa: the lion king premieres on December 20 and this new creation of the saga of The lion king (it’s the fifth movie, along with a tv collection, a dozen video video games and a really well-known musical) is within the palms of Barry Jenkins (Miami, 44 years previous), somebody whose work has navigated, till now, very removed from the Disney world. . “It is not the first offer I have received to direct a blockbuster, but it is the first that attracted me, with which I felt I could contribute something personal,” he explains in Madrid after a screening of 39 of the movie’s minutes.

And if the title that began the legend was Disney’s most political movie, Mufasa: the lion king doesn’t appear to be left behind when it comes to sending a transparent message about caring for migrants, governing for the folks and solely them, and when a lion chief of a satisfaction lets free: “Deception is at the service of great kings,” There are these within the viewers who will consider Donald Trump, a reputation that Jenkins haggles over mentioning all through the interview. “My cinema has never been political, what matters behind the scenes is something else,” says Jenkins.

The filmmaker doesn’t consider in political cinema. “At least I don’t want mine to be, I don’t talk about politics, although notable social and political issues are touched upon,” he provides. “And I can’t control or care about what the public thinks. I also cannot reveal much of what has not yet been seen about the film. [donde aparece un león blanco, Kiros, un depredador que entiende que la mejor defensa es el ataque]. In life there are numerous aspects that can be considered political, and when you construct a story like this drama, when you draw interrelationships between characters, of course there will be social and political resonances.

Mufasa: the lion king It is born from the Disney line of recreating its computer animation classics. But the digital animated vision of the original film was already made in 2019; Jenkins has the prequel’s turn, telling how all the characters met, especially Mufasa, a lion cub separated from his family by a flood, and Taka, another cub called to lead a pride. Over time, Taka will become Scar, and yes, both felines are not brothers by blood, but by adventures and cares. That is, Mufasa is a migrant, adopted by Taka’s mother, much to the father’s annoyance, and has arrived in that pack after crossing a large river, like a wetback: he will survive because of the kindness of strangers. If Trump sees that… “Everyone sees different things. Because we started this project four years ago. We started with one president and we started with another. The same thing happened to me with Moonlight. We spent three years producing it and it just premiered during a presidential change,” he displays. And he continues: “As a narrator you cannot think about the temporal. I love that quote from someone who says, ‘You should write as if you were dying, as if your parents were dying, as if everyone was dying.’ Otherwise, the movies have no meaning.”

At that second, the filmmaker takes a breath and provides: “You will understand it better this way. In all my films, water is important. And here we have replaced the fire of the first The lion king by water. I was determined to overflow the reservoir at the beginning. Let’s say it’s a personal fingerprint. Suddenly, I land here in Madrid, after you have suffered terrible floods in Valencia, and Mufasa “It has a different echo.”

However, Jenkins, impeccable, in a swimsuit and tie, delves into what Mufasa He speaks, in turbulent occasions of hoaxes and personalistic management, “about how to raise children and the differences between two children educated in the way that will make one a leader and the other not.” “Moreover, how the ways we interact shape us. Hopefully for the best. How does someone end up being who they are? Be careful, I don’t answer that question, I just show the journey.”

Jenkins skilled one of the delirious moments in Oscar historical past when the producers of La La Land (town of stars) They found that they have been thanking the principle statuette and it didn’t truly belong to them. The two presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, of the final award on the 2017 Hollywood Awards gala had been given the fallacious envelope, and subsequently learn the fallacious title: that they had gained Moonlight, the second characteristic from its director. Jenkins’ profession, who had already gained the trophy for greatest tailored screenplay that night time, was catapulted. That child from a drug-ravaged neighborhood in Miami, who grew up in pals’ households, had reached the highest. Then they got here El blues de Beale Street (2018) and the collection The underground railway (2021). “I needed a change, and Disney offered it to me,” he summarizes.

The filmmaker argues that this shift is accompanied by much less strain, which in Mufasa He hasn’t felt the load of the previous. “I knew that fans of The lion king they are very intense [y él mismo lo ha sufrido en redes sociales]but I also understood that it was an opportunity to do something unique. And that I had to follow my instinct, not the debates on the internet. The pressure I felt with The underground railway It came from the fact that there are not many television series that talk about the struggle of African-American slaves. And therefore I had to rise to the challenge and not disappoint my ancestors or spoil the opportunity they were giving me. That’s a different pressure,” says Jenkins, a fan of The lion king from 1994. “I know I have exaggerated a little with the number of times I have seen it. In reality, there have only been 55. The last one was about three months ago, because I was interested in understanding what they say that cannot be seen, the use of faces to narrate.”

In fact, as a filmmaker, he is crossing a new field for him: he is not promoting a film, answering why he has made artistic choices, but he is traveling the world facing more aggressive questions: the whys are no longer kind. Even from fans of his work, who only hope that he makes many other films with the money he has earned with this one. “I have done what I wanted. Disney came for me and allowed me to work with the scriptwriter, contribute my ideas to the narrative. I also trust my entire team, those who have accompanied me in my career: my editor, my director of photography, my art director… They are all in Mufasa: The Lion King he responds, making the film 100% his own. Why have the big studios recruited so many filmmaker-authors for their blockbusters in recent times? There are Ryan Coogler, Lee Isaac Chung, Greta Gerwig and Chloé Zhao. “I am not a major, I don’t know the answer, although I can guess it. I talked about this with Ryan and Chloé, and I think they hire us because they want more drama, something different. “I accepted this proposal because I felt I could contribute something personal to the story.”