Barbara Wurm: Welcome to the Forum, Simon. PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS (Gemstones) is your debut film. Thank you for giving us this wonderful gem. When did you start working on the concept?
Simón Vélez: One of the actors in my short films (Historia del Agua, 2016) is the lead actor in PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS, Juan Lugo. We have been working together for ten years and have a great working relationship, and he is also a friend of mine. During the pandemic, he moved with his wife from Colombia to Toulouse. There, he started working with children at a school and then planned to quit his job to harvest grapes. That created a powerful image in my mind. In fact, it was the strongest image I had for the film: an intellectual working in a vineyard. I also had these images of gemstones that I had taken many years ago in a shop in Bogotá. The combination of both of them was the seed for the project. At the same time, I still had some small funds left over from my previous short films, so I flew to France with the cinematographer Mauricio Reyes. We spent two weeks there, also with Juan. We explored the city, thought about the film, and started shooting without a script. We also organised the permit to shoot in the vineyard.
Ansgar Vogt: The filming locations seem to play an important role in the film. Could it be that the locations contributed to the plot ideas?
SV: I am very interested in filming locations. My family’s business is a real estate agency. As a child, I often visited different places with my parents: apartments, houses, farms, for instance. Visiting shooting locations, buildings, and architecture is what I enjoy most about filmmaking. Every day, I am on the lookout for new places. I find new places and let them inspire me. That’s why I always have lots of places in mind that I know could work in my films to create a world – in this case, between Toulouse and Medellín.
Visiting shooting locations, buildings, and architecture is what I enjoy most about filmmaking.
BW: How exactly did you continue developing PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS into a genre-related film?
SV: I am a great admirer of classic cinema, for example Hitchcock. That’s why the film was supposed to have a MacGuffin: something that motivates the main character to travel from France to Colombia. We thought of an emerald. These gemstones are very important in Colombia, as it is one of the countries with the largest deposits of emeralds, which are famous worldwide. Incidentally, most of the emeralds stolen from the Louvre in 2025 originally came from Colombia.
AV: For me, this directly touches on the concepts of colonialism and decolonisation. Is this also an issue for you?
SV: Yes, it is, but I didn’t want to make it obvious. It was shocking for me when I once visited a museum in Spain, where many Colombian treasures were on display, not only emeralds, but also gold, ceramics – all these things were taken from Colombia about 500 years ago. To this day, raw materials from mining in Colombia, as well as flowers, fruits, and coffee, are not mined and produced for Colombian consumption in the first place, but for export. Most of Colombia’s wealth actually leaves the country. The best quality is produced for export. I think my film also addresses this, but not explicitly. The emerald is a fitting metaphor for the phenomenon that not only Colombia, but also Latin American, African, and other countries that originally possessed natural riches are being robbed of them.
BW When did the idea of the priest as a main character come to your mind?
SV: Before travelling to France, I visited Paula Ciro, a costume designer and close friend of mine who owns a costume collection. She had this priest costume folded up in a corner of her apartment. I immediately thought it would be interesting to incorporate it in the film somehow, so I took it with me to France. It wasn’t used right away, but it inspired us: The main character was supposed to dress up as a priest when he returned to Colombia. I found it funny to see Juan as a priest, since I myself as a kid had attended a school run by priests. Since I dislike priests, killing a priest in this film felt like revenge, because at the same time I was somehow killing the negative image I had developed since childhood. Actually, I’m very spiritual and believe in God, but I didn’t have good experiences with Catholicism at school, so I wanted to make fun of it. Juan too: He even wanted to play a nun. He asked me to get him a nun’s costume, but that wasn’t so easy, so we finally decided on the character of the priest.
AV: Speaking of fun: your film contains a lot of humour.
SV: The entire process of making this film was a lot of fun. We laughed the whole time. I have been working in cinema for many years, in various productions and in different positions. Film shoots are usually very serious, strict, and disciplined. But I wanted to have fun making this film: to enjoy and work with my friends at the same time.
I draw inspiration from classic films: the characters spend time together, stroll around – and suddenly they start dancing for no reason.
AV: Important elements in your film are magnificent flowers, in the background of the scenes or as sequences of flower images. You also edit sequences of shots with beautiful birds. These sequences break the linear story-telling.
SV: I live about 40 minutes from Medellín, an area where flower cultivation is widespread. Most people there work in this industry, and about 95% of these flowers are produced for export. When we started filming the Colombian part of the movie, I was very focused on finding and filming a burned forest. Since it was a hot year, there were many fires around the city. I wanted to create this poetic image of priests walking through fire. We found a location, but it turned out to be difficult to shoot there: lots of mosquitoes, lots of unpleasant smells. So we gave up on that idea. Instead, we moved to the place where we stored our equipment. And that was a beautiful place, surrounded by flowers. Since I didn’t want to waste the precious filming time in the afternoon, we started by shooting the flowers, including a guayacán, a tree typical of the region with impressive yellow flowers. I thought that those images were going to be nice to have, even if I possibly wouldn’t use them for the film. I just want to have them. And finally, they turned out to become some of the most beautiful moments in the film. Regarding the birds: All of them are from the region where I live. Not only are they colourful and beautiful, but they also produce wonderful sounds. My neighbour is a bird photographer and puts fruit out for the birds in his house so that they always stay nearby. I asked him if I could take some pictures of the birds, and we spent the whole morning at his house filming them – afterwards, I edited the footage for the film.
BW: The flowers and birds form a visual colour palette for the entire film. For me, they are a key element. I would therefore like to ask you about visual aspects and your aesthetics: colours, music, but also dance, as the film also contains fascinating dance scenes.
SV: I draw inspiration from classic films: the characters spend time together, stroll around – and suddenly they start dancing for no reason. It’s beautiful and magical. My characters already dance in my short films. The audience loves these dance scenes, so I tried to develop them further. In PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS, the characters dance to Caribbean music, salsa, and boleros. I think it’s beautiful to see people dancing. I also enjoy dancing myself and love music. Overall, I would compare filmmaking to dancing and music rather than to literature or theatre. I also love colours. From the beginning, PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS was meant to be a colourful film. I wanted to achieve high colour saturation and play with the colours of the gemstones. I have also used music by Johann Sebastian Bach since my first short films. I love Bach. At the end of the film, I use his ‘Chromatic Fantasy’ because I think that’s exactly what the film is: a chromatic fantasy. It is not a film with a linear narrative structure. In fact, this film was not primarily about telling a story, but about exploring the characters and my own work spiritually.
BW: Are there references to Robert Bresson in your film?
SV: Yes, Bresson is very important to me. In fact, his ‘Notes to the Cinematographer’ was very close to us during production. Every day we opened the book randomly, and every time it offered a wise message to us. For instance, telling the audience what is going to happen cancels out every possible form of suspense in cinema, and in that nullification something spiritual happens. Bresson’s cinema takes advantage of something I’ve also tried to apply to my own work: the idea of not generating suspense from narrative, but from editing, from what might be happening inside the characters through the spaces they inhabit, the things they see or touch. It is about acting with the eyes, acting with small gestures. I am a great fan of Bresson’s films, his interviews, and his writings. Whenever I need inspiration, I return to his books. Some friends say that PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS is perhaps ‘a tropical Bresson’, a mixture of Colombia, birds, flowers, and sensual dance. My film is like a salad made from many different ingredients. From classic Hollywood cinema to Bresson to my own experiences, my own production system, and Colombia. Yes, it’s a salad.
This film was not primarily about telling a story, but about exploring the characters and my own work spiritually.
AV: You add filters, such as pink colours in a car scene, with electronic music. Why do you do that?
SV: The pink moment in the car is accompanied by electronic music called ‘guaracha’. Young people love it. The aesthetics of guaracha feature a lot of pink, but also green and yellow, all neon colours. I wanted to create something around this very fast, powerful, and specific music. It’s electronic music from Medellín and a reference to the city.
AV: You appear in your film yourself – as a pilot. Why did you become part of the cast, and why is your character still alive at the end, even though he dies in the film? Can we expect a sequel?
SV: I wanted to be in the film because I have many friends who make films, but they never give me a role in their films, even though I ask them to. That’s why I wanted to give myself a chance. I was back in Paula Ciro’s costume wardrobe and saw this pilot’s costume. It fascinated me and gave me the idea of playing a pilot in my film. I had already dealt with the resurrection of characters in my earlier short films. It’s a theme in my work because, having been raised Catholic, it seems strange to me that Jesus rose from the dead. He suddenly woke up. And I keep asking myself: What happened after that? The Bible ends here, with the resurrection of Jesus. But what happened then? Where did he go? For me, the Bible is a very important work of fiction that comes from our culture and is particularly relevant to Colombia, as it is a very Catholic country. I love the audience’s reaction when a character is resurrected. For me, this is already the second time that I have been resurrected as a character in one of my films.
You have to let the world control the film.
AV: It is a disruption, but not the only one in your film.
SV: Yes, I like to disrupt reality by incorporating elements into my films that don’t belong there. I approach fiction films as if they were documentaries. For example, I bring the actor out of a fictional setting and into interaction with the real world. When the main character buys new clothes, he interacts with real clothing salespeople who are not trained actors. And I didn’t give Juan, the lead actor, any specific instructions. I just let it happen. Another example: The woman who runs the restaurant where the main character eats soup suddenly wanted to be involved. She came up to me and asked me if she could be in the film. In fact, she created her entire character and dialogue herself, and I was happy with it. When you make a film, you play God in a way. You want to control the entire universe. But while shooting PIEDRAS PRECIOSAS, I learned that it has to be the other way around. You have to let the world control the film. The result was fantastic. She became one of the most beautiful characters in the film.
AV: But she also says to the priest, ‘You don’t look like a priest.’ When she said that, was that good feedback for you as a director, or rather not good feedback?
SV: It was good feedback because at that point the audience already knows he isn’t a real priest. It was cool because the woman who runs the restaurant could obviously sense that, not just as the character she was playing, but also as a person who runs a restaurant. The revelation that he isn’t a priest thus creates a connection with the audience. She was very generous with her time and the development of her character. It was very easy with her. Interestingly, I had already participated in other film shoots with professional actors – and it took hours to get the shot. But here, we succeeded on the first take. It was just one shot. In fact, it took longer to set up the camera than to get a great shot with her.
BW: It all sounds like improvisation and spontaneity, influenced by real life and real people. At the same time, as the director, you then control the film again through your editing.
SV: I believe that the real writing of a film is the editing. When I sit in front of the computer, watch all the takes and scenes, and try to build something out of them, that’s when the actual writing of the film takes place. I work with Juan Cañola all the time. He’s a very close friend of mine and also a great editor from Medellín. That’s when I feel like I’m making the film. Everything else before that, such as shooting, is very physical. You need a lot of strength to shoot a film, but editing is all about the mind. It’s creative and there’s a lot of leeway, a lot of options. I love the editing process. In fact, it’s the part I enjoy most in the creation of the entire film.
BW: The film consists of many funny, hilarious scenes. I could imagine there are even more that didn’t make it into the final cut. Now the running time is only 70 minutes. When do you know that the film is finished?
SV: At the beginning, we had a 90-minute cut, and then we started shortening the film. Imagine the film as a person who has to undergo an organ transplant. Sometimes the body does not accept a new organ. And I believe that the film becomes a living being, and sometimes you try, for example, to insert another hand, and it does not work. The body rejects it. You want to add a third eye, and it says there’s no space for it. The film begins to speak for itself. Yes, I had a few other scenes I could have cut, but those scenes weren’t powerful enough. In the end, we put together the most powerful scenes, and that’s the final length of the film.
