4 days ago
‘Twelve Moons' Debuts First-Look Clip Ahead of Tribeca Premiere, Director Victoria Franco Speaks About Societal Pressures on Women (EXCLUSIVE)
'Twelve Moons,' the feature debut of Mexican filmmaker Victoria Franco, premieres on Saturday in the International Narrative Competition of Tribeca Festival. Variety debuts an exclusive first clip from the film and speaks to the director.
The film stars acclaimed Mexican actor Ana de la Reguera, whose career bridges Hollywood and Latin American cinema, alongside Ariel Award winner Enrique Arreola. Filmmaker Michel Franco, Victoria's brother, is a producer on the film, and the Match Factory is handling international sales.
More from Variety
'Billy Joel: And So It Goes' Directors Share Inspirational Message From Ailing Singer: 'He Will Be Back'
Tribeca Festival: Miley Cyrus' 'Something Beautiful,' Barbara Walters Doc and 11 Other Films We're Excited to See
'The Shadow Scholars,' Executive Produced by Steve McQueen, Debuts Trailer Ahead of North American Premiere at Tribeca (EXCLUSIVE)
'Twelve Moons' follows Sofia, a 40-year-old architect in Mexico City, who has suffered a devastating loss, and must navigate her complex emotions while trying to stay true to herself. As she struggles with her fertility and identity as a woman, both her personal and professional life begin to deteriorate forcing her to look inward to find the light that will lead her forward.
In the clip, we see that Sofia has an issue with alcohol consumption, and in the film, we discover she is also a drug user. 'For me, it's really important to portray people who don't feel comfortable with social conventions,' Franco says. 'There are many people who don't feel that they are part of society but feel societal pressure. And as a woman, there is the added pressure to have a child, have a family, be the perfect woman, and I really admire people who are really authentic and don't give in to these pressures.'
Sofia is portrayed with empathy and her alcohol and drug dependency should be seen as a 'disease,' Franco says. It is Sofia's way of relaxing when faced with societal expectations and the pressure to conform – to feel 'normal,' overcome her insecurity, and appear self-confident.
Unable to conceive, Sofia's life – both personal and professional – starts to unravel. 'She has no boundaries, so she doesn't know how to separate her professional and personal life, and she takes them both so seriously,' the director says.
'She feels that through her architecture, her feelings can become connected with other people. She tries to work in a way that is parallel to her feelings. Architecture is very important in this film, because I portray many places that are representing her feelings through their architecture.'
Franco describes Sofia as an 'ethical' architect who tries to create buildings that encourage a feeling of freedom in those who inhabit them. We see her visiting buildings in Mexico City that exemplify that approach, like those designed by the architect Luis Barragán.
'She fights to create spaces that allow people to have more liberty within them. There's a conversation where she's arguing about putting fewer parking lots in order to create more green spaces so people can be happier in these places.
'I love Luis Barragán, who talks about a spiritual architecture, about architecture where you can feel the connection between the space and the mind, and you can feel connected with it, and it's the architecture of silence too. He won the Pritzker Prize, and his acceptance speech was amazing. It's beautiful.'
Speaking about Ana de la Reguera, Franco says: 'Ana has great presence. She has a lovely face. She's a person with a deep, deep soul. And when I talked to her about the script, I felt that she was very connected with the matter of being a woman in her 40s and the social demands that people make.
'And she's an actress who has like 20 years of experience, so I was really amazed when we were talking and playing around, like, 'Imagine the camera is here, and what would you do?,' and she was improvising and doing things that I was amazed by, because sometimes I felt that she had known the character for her entire life, like she has lived with her.'
Regarding the cinematography, she comments: 'First of all, I decided that the movie should be black and white, so the spectator had no distractions with the colors, and he could be really connected with the emotions and the state of mind of the character.
'And also, the movie is about architecture as well, so it's very geometrical. We looked for many locations that were really hard to get permission to film there, but we made it. There's a beautiful fountain by Isamu Noguchi, the Japanese artist, for example.
'The cinematographer, Sergio Armstrong G., is a genius. We improvised a lot. We never felt that we were in control of everything. We played with the freedom of being in the moment and sensing where to put the camera. We didn't have a shooting list of everything, and I felt so free. If I didn't have this cinematographer, Sergio, it would be pretty difficult, because I was pretty sure of the emotional state and everything but the visual things… it was Sergio who put everything together to make the movie look like the state of mind of the character.'
As in film noir, the film uses light and shade to reflect the internal landscape of the character, but there were other cinematic influences. 'Many times, I felt inspired by Italian Neo Realism, because we didn't have much budget for lighting, but with its realism sometimes the film feels like a documentary, and the camera was very, very humbled, because we didn't need so much lighting to make it look beautiful. And the shadows and the geometric forms are so important.'
There are similarities to how she and her brother work, she says. 'We both film chronologically. That was very helpful, because the actress was really involved with the process of the character and the emotions, and we improvised a lot, so the script changed a lot while shooting. Michel also does that, so I believe we're similar in terms of production.'
She is full of praise for her brother's contribution as a producer. 'I think he was the best producer because he really got my back, and he just cares about the creativity and the process that I wanted, and he never gave up, for example, in getting some locations. Even though we didn't have enough money, he'd fight for everything. So, it was a paradise working with him.'
Next up for Franco, she says, is a film about a teenager in New York, for which she is writing the screenplay now.
Best of Variety
What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025
New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
