A toxic relationship story with no heroes: Alberto Mielgo on the short’s message Jibaro. Technically, so far the most difficult work of the director.
Jibaro, as expected , became one of the main episodes of the third part of Love, Death and Robots for the audience. Artist and director Alberto Mielgo has already worked on the short film The Witness for the first season, receiving several Emmys for it, and in early 2022 he was awarded the first Oscar for The Windshield Wiper.
Episode Mielgo was singled out even by anthology producer David Fincher, saying that he liked the work so much that he shared it with Steven Soderbergh to get his opinion.
On the occasion of the release, the artist himself gave a series of interviews in which he spoke about the creation of the short film and explained the meaning inherent in it. After viewing, the audience appreciated the audiovisual part, but many were not sure that they understood the idea correctly.
In the plot, Mielgo, oddly enough, continues to explore the topic of relationships, which is also devoted to the short film The Windshield Wiper and even the episode The Witness from the first season.
The Witness for me was a story about a relationship that you can’t get out of. This is a loop in which both people try to get through to each other, but at the same time they cannot listen to the partner. Jibaro, in turn, talks about the extremely toxic relationship between the two predators. This is a sensual relationship based on attraction to each other for not the best reasons.
I like it when it’s hard to tell who is a good person and who is a bad one. It evokes strong feelings.
Alberto Mielgo
Mielgo specifically emphasized that he was not attracted to stories with an obvious hero saving the world or going through a difficult path, at the end of which he becomes the best version of himself.
There are no heroes in this story. In fact, they are both quite suspicious. At the same time, the viewer is not sure which side to take. At the beginning, you see this woman as a monster, but later you begin to sympathize with her.
Also in this story there are no changes for the better. Rather, the opposite is true: both characters turn out to be the worst version of themselves at the end, and they do not learn any lesson from this. Both lose.
To be honest, I like it when a movie leaves me with a subtle sense of discomfort.
Alberto Mielgo
In other words, Jibaro is dedicated to people who are not destined to be together: both pursue the wrong goals and give themselves to attraction instead of listening to their feelings.
The director believes that in modern society, people often encounter similar relationships, which Jibaro is dedicated to.
Such attraction only leads to suffering. There are happy people who are lucky enough to find a partner at a young age and stay with him for many years, but most of us find it difficult to find a soul mate. I love talking about it because it’s a very personal topic for me. And when you talk about something personal, the audience understands it and feels real emotions.
Alberto Mielgo
Speaking about working on the short, Mielgo confirmed that he remains true to himself and does not use motion capture. Instead, the director takes multiple references and works on all of the character animations by hand.
This time, for references, the Mielgo team called in choreographer Sara Silk, who, in turn, invited a group of familiar dancers to shoot several videos for the animators.
As with his previous work, including the Watch Dogs Legion trailer , Mielgo used an effect that simulates the presence of a camera operator on the scene.
I like it when the camera is “live”. When the viewer feels as if he himself is in the scene or even holding the camera himself. If done right, it adds realism. I also like it when the camera cannot focus on the frame even for a second. In real life, it’s hard to focus during a fight. Therefore, the use of such an effect well conveys to the viewer a sense of stress and presence.
Alberto Mielgo
Technically, Jibaro turned out to be Mielgo’s most difficult work, because this time the director moved away from the usual and, as he himself says, more simple urban backgrounds for him and showed nature.
Simulating water splashing on armor and decorations at the same time as it’s all in motion is very difficult. However, I wanted to squeeze the maximum out of technology and pictures. In the end, we did it, so I’m glad.
The short film format is convenient for this because it allows you to create something really amazing with more room to explore technology.
Alberto Mielgo
Alberto Mielgo does more than just short films. Back in 2019, Stampede announced that it would produce the artist’s first full-length work, but so far there is no news about it.
