PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Sebastián Lojo, director of the film Los Fantasmas.
An interview with Sebastián Lojo, director of Los Fantasmas, presented in the Bright Future strand of the 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film is set in the lower classes of Guatemala City and explores, among other things, lack of communication. Lojo talks with us about this particular theme as well as how sex and violence serve as disruption within the narrative. He also talks about how the actors he cast helped shape the characters they portrayed and more.
Los Fantasmas: Handsome Koki earns a living in Guatemala City winning people’s confidence, after which their possessions go missing. By day he is a tourist guide, but at night he seduces men and takes them to Carlos’ hotel, where they are robbed. Koki and Carlos are two sides of the same coin; their fates are intertwined through their violent activities. One day, Koki is targeted by one of the men he stole from, leading Carlos to replace him with another good-looking young man. The shock of this sudden removal of his means of subsistence causes Koki to realise what his life was like, in an almost out-of-body experience.
The Lovers Film Festival celebrates 40 years with 70 films from 26 countries, international guests and tributes to LGBTQI+ cinema icons. Directed by Vladimir Luxuria, from 10 to 17 April at the Cinema Massimo in Turin.