‘Graffiti’

Set in the devastated urban decay of a post-apocalyptic world, this short dramatic film follows the efforts of the last man standing to communicate with a hidden friend.

See www.graffitishortfilm.com.

Were there any real life incidents that prompted you to tell this story?

The idea came because I wanted to tell a love story that could be contemporary yet in a different environment, out of the ordinary for this kind of movies. I also found it interesting to explore the type of communication so present in our daily relationships (chats, emails, etc …) without doing something too literal.

The film speaks about loneliness, the power of imagination and the faith in love. I found interesting to set the story in a realistic environment, where the starting point of ‘Graffiti’ was credible: the world has ended and a single survivor with little hope left finds something that will change his life.

There are a lot of apocalyptic fears in America. Is it the same in Spain?

I imagine it’s quite common in the western world. The more a society evolves, the closer its end. I’ve always had present a quote from Albert Einstein which exemplifies it well: ‘I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.’

Where did you shoot this film? Was it fun to create a post-apocalyptic set?

The film was shot in the abandoned town of Pripyat, near the Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant in Ukraine. It is an amazing and unique place in the world, as it has remained intact and uninhabited for nearly 30 years since the accident that caused the evacuation and closure of the nuclear plant. It is quite complicated to get into Pripyat to shoot a film due to the security measures that need to be taken in the “exclusion zone.” “Graffiti’ is the first film production to be filmed entirely within the “exclusion zone”. Personally, been able to film in Pripyat was a dream come true, as I dreamed of doing something there for years.

What projects are you working on next?

After four short films and my first feature film, I am now working on my second movie. Hopefully it’s a project that I’ve been developing called “Impure.” It is a psychological thriller about the identity, which I would also like to produce with my company, as I have done with ‘Graffiti’.