SYNOPSIS

 

The struggle of reality with fantasy that exists within every human being

 

Federico Garcia Lorca’s 'The House of Bernarda Alba' is one of the great dramatic stories of the 20th century. 'Shooting Bernarda' opens this dark story to the lights of a 21st century film crew shooting 'Bernarda'. The secrets, fantasies and desires of the actors mix with those of their characters, and the plot thickens. Both the original 'Bernarda' and the modern film tell the story of a wealthy, powerful and once beautiful woman locking herself and her frustrated daughters away from the world for 5 years of mourning when her husband dies. Repressed pain and sexuality explode in the presence of Pepe El Romano, a high-testosterone village stud who sets himself the challenge of making it with each and every one of the women despite their house arrest.

 

With Lorca's masterpiece as the axis, the inter-twined 'realities' reflect and stimulate each other. By inter-cutting the play, for sixty years stage-bound, with extraordinary on location recollections and fly-on-the-wall production footage, re-set as it is in Lorca's arid landscapes, ‘Shooting Bernarda' will shine new light on, and breathe new life back into a work so loved by actors and audiences the world over. 

 

A pressure-cooker of repression, desire, jealousy, sex and loathing.