Hurley’s Director Interview

-The film opens with a long sequence that leads into a flashback structure. Why did you choose this narrative approach?

-I've always wanted to make a movie that starts with a man hanging from a bridge, which is a very common sight in Mexico. You see this kind of thing in the newspapers all the time. I wanted to expand on this scene, to tell what happened before, and to uncover the secrets behind the events. Behind this scene, there is a tragic story about family, death, and violence. I feel that this kind of story should be told. Otherwise, people would think that the man hanging on the bridge deserved his death.

-Your style for this film is very direct and simple. In other words, it's rough.

-My photographer, Lorenzo Hagerman, has many years of experience shooting documentaries. He understood how to shoot a movie without lighting. Moreover, in order to make the film more realistic, we also used different lenses as much as possible. Like Robert Bresson, we shot the film using a lot of 50mm and even 40mm focal length lenses. With a lens like this, get as close as possible to your subject and get a human perspective. Moreover, using such a standard lens will make people pay more attention to the existence of the "frame" and allow the audience to gain a more natural viewing angle.

-There are many tortured scenes in "Hurley". Why were they shot like this?

-I think this is a natural thing. First, in Mexico, violence of all kinds occurs all the time. Secondly, I feel that the violence in this film is related to my previous works. That said, violence is an important element in my films. Given this narrative, it's not surprising that those torture scenes would appear in this film. When filming, we referred to many news articles and used our imagination. In fact, this kind of shot is not difficult to shoot, because in Mexico, everyone knows that the gang members are shady.

-There is a name named "Hurley" in the film. Does this name come from your myths and legends?

-That's not the case. This name came from a newspaper when I was ten years old. A short article was published in the newspaper at that time. The title is called "Hurley". That report told the story of a fight between a gang of gangsters and the police. This story shocked me deeply. So, I used that name in this movie.

-Do you all shoot in a similar way?

-Yes, the purpose of this is to give me the feeling of "breathing the same fate" as the movie. In this way, I can feel the rhythm of the film and sort out the myriad elements, plots and clues from the beginning. I know what kind of person I am, so I wrote a very detailed script, drew a detailed storyboard, and only started shooting the movie after considering every shot. Even after making such preparations, there were still a lot of troubles during filming. Every day of shooting is an adventure. Of course, I think this kind of risk-taking is positive and positive. Because every time we finish a day of shooting, we make a ton of progress on the narrative, the story, the plot. Every day of shooting has daily problems. As our team handles these problems, the film becomes more and more shaped and better.