“This is a project which has come a long way, and was born in the theatre when I went to see the play.” As was the case with Krampack , Cesc Gay once again had recourse to the theatre to bring us this, his first foray into comic territory. This time he has adapted Carl Lopez’s play Version Original Subtitulada (V.O.S.) , which was staged at the Teatre Lliure with the same cast, who presented the film in Madrid this morning: Agata Roca, Vicenta Ndongo, Andres Herrera and Paul Berrondo.

Agata Roca plays Clara, who is going to have a child with her best friend Manu, although they feel no love for each other. Meanwhile, Manu’s best friend, Ander, has been with Vicky for eight years. She is in the middle of changing her profession, but her relationship is beginning to fall to pieces. The evolution of these alliances, between the respective couples, and all four together comprise the story of the film, or maybe only one of them.

The curious thing about V.O.S is its wholly novel staging. These four characters are, in turn, the characters from the film they’re shooting, and people in real life, connected by very different relationships. This is to say that, like in cinema itself, nothing is what it seems. The director places his cast on a set and plays with the scenery like in the theatre, to the extent that several members of the film crew appear in the film too.

However, both the filmmaker and the writers make it very clear that everything was already there in the original text. “The play was always very cinematographic, so I hardly had to touch the dialogue, and I only had to make a few changes to convey the idea of a live film.”

Furthermore, this is the first comedy the director of Krampack has made. “En la ciudad was supposed to be a comedy, but no-one believes me.” One familiar aspect, however, is his vision of relationships between couples in a particular generational sphere, but here with a different tone. “I had never shot an argument because in my other films the characters hide their emotions. Here they say things to each others’ faces, and that has been very entertaining.” Themes like maternity, commitments or professional aspirations display the characters like “a compendium of everything which happens around us", to quote the director.

The film is shot in Catalan, Spanish, and has a few phrases in Basque, but will be dubbed into Spanish before being released in cinemas. Although he understands the need to do so, Gay is unenthusiastic about the process: “I’ve spent more days dubbing than filming,” he says. In any case, he is optimistic about dubbing and believes that “this will start to disappear, little by little, because it’s old-fashioned.”