Champions Premiere | Javier Fesser: “We encrypt peace of mind in the grades our children obtain in mathematics, without questioning whether they are happy at playground time”

2023-08-17 14:43:53

Yes, he sees life as if it were a comic strip. Because that is where he finds the goodness of the human being, the same kind that nurtured him as a child, the eighth of nine siblings. Fesser returns with Campeonex, the “x” added because this time the game is about video games, and about mental and physical disabilities. It opens in theaters on August 18. An inclusive and positive being Javier Fesser (Madrid, 1964)and fun to rage.

Weekend of family premieres, with cartoon films and ‘CampeoneX’

Do you see life as a comic strip?

The truth is that yes, because I have learned to tell stories with comics. I am interested above all in the truth that cartoons have.

It is true that he has made a cartoon movie, once again, and with a lot of morality: “The usual capacities of the human being are to get angry, always want to win and mistrust.” Is this the message?

It is not moral, it is true: we are seeing it every day in sports competitions.

He is released in minute two of the tape by one of his glorious characters. Are your actors happy?

Very happy. Joy is one of the general characteristics of people with this supposed intellectual disability. They take every opportunity to celebrate.

Are you completely sure about this?

Yes, when you work with them you are laughing all day. They are people who accept themselves in a very mature way. They are so used to moving between different, that they are continually giving us lessons on how to accept others as they are. They do not conceive the concept of “different”.

And therefore they do not classify or label, isn’t this increasingly important? Don’t you notice that people are increasingly suspicious of the different?

Very important, they do not handle prejudices, they do not put their bellies in for the photo, they are comfortable, they are happy. The summary did Gloria Ramos (Collantes in the movie): in an interview they asked him what he had felt when he met Brianeitor (the soul of the film, a video game creator youtuber who suffers from muscle atrophy and barely moves his head, tied to a chair and a respirator for life, and whose image shocks). And Gloria replied: “I was very impressed, because no one had warned me that he is from Almería and I spend the summer in Almería! (Lots of well-deserved laughs, hahahaha)”. And all this said from the most absolute truth and sincerity: it is like the synthesis of what this film tells.

Everything we are and the places we go are intimately connected with the first years of our lives.

Fesser, argues that “intellectual capacity is overrated.” Should we listen more to the heart and emotions to be a little happier?

I maintain that we encrypt our peace of mind in the grades our children obtain in mathematics, without even questioning whether they are happy at playground time. Does my son grow, learn to be a better person, does he count on others? Intellectual disability is associated with enormous emotional capacity: they appreciate much more than anyone if you have a bad day and need a hug. “Disability” for what? We all have disabilities.

The most intelligent beings are not usually the best emotionally prepared, why should this be the case?

When you have a limitation, you have to work much more on another of your abilities, and when that limitation is intellectual, you have to balance your emotions to attend to others. But in that understanding from the heart, preconceived ideas or prejudices do not intervene: they do not enter the equation.

Javier, why repeat? champions contributed a lot to the integration of the disabled in the cinema, what else can you do Championex?

Because I wanted to introduce functional disability. And delve into the reality of these people, in their world: family, employment centers, love relationships. The interest created in the public with the first one provided us with this opportunity to delve deeper.

What happened in your life between the ages of zero and 15, that caught you so much?

Everything, everything that comes after. I would even say between zero and 8 years. It is evident that everything we are and the places we reach are intimately connected with the first years of our lives, which is where our personality, fears, interests, abilities and disabilities are forged; and I clearly notice it, and for this reason I am so grateful for the love that my parents and siblings gave me, for having been born in such a big and beautiful family.

This two in particular (not to say all your movies) you are totally childish: is this how you like to view life?

I love that you see it like this. That childhood look, which is so similar to that of very old people, which is also in the movie, is a look full of curiosity and disinterested, and it is not conditioned by what you have experienced or by your expectations. When the soul is new everything flows clean and transparent.

Aren’t your children (three, the eldest, Claudia Fesser, the bad guy in this movie; the other two make cameo appearances) ashamed of some of the things their father does?

The truth is, no. I made a series for the internet with my youngest son, Javi, when he was one year old: Javiluz, they were one-minute chapters based on the Warner cartoons. You can’t imagine how much fun we had.

Javier, how much weight did religion have in your formation?

Very much, I was educated in Catholicism both at home and at school. And I was very devoted: official altar boy of the parish of my neighborhood (Salamanca/Retiro). And at the age of 13, it often crossed my mind to be a priest. I made a change at 14: I stopped needing the idea that someone superior was watching over me, that is, God, and I began to work on an enormous faith in the human being and in the love between people.

That is, did he go from Catholic monotheism to humanism?

Well, said like that, it’s too big for me, but I still have a lot of all that education, it’s very difficult to get rid of it. I was lucky to be educated by my parents in the light of faith, from love, and not from guilt and darkness that I portrayed in Camino.

When they noticed that confidence, their disabilities disappeared.

He owes his father his humorous vein and his mother, kindness, but…

My mother is still there, she is going to be 101 years old and she is the most modern of the whole family: her head is the best furnished and her memory is immense.

But have you never had an enemy?

Not that I know of. I have never worked to have it. And I don’t feel like anyone’s enemy.

Being the eighth of 9 siblings, are you brilliant or are you eaten up?

No. The thing is: either you were fast or you didn’t eat; Either you were quick going to the bathroom or you had to stand in line. But I am very grateful for all this: such a large family with limited resources has given us all a lot of flexibility to adapt to changes. In exchange for never going to the beach for the summer or eating in a restaurant, it has made us very open. And another very interesting matter is the different perception and memory that we each have of the same reality.

What did you do when the others played soccer?

It was so bad that nobody wanted me on their team, so I took up basketball, and then I had a really good gym teacher who introduced me to track. He was my coach and I became the Spanish champion in the 50 meter hurdles and long jump, junior category.

Wow, is that why the Champions have switched to athletics in this second installment?

Well, look, I hadn’t even thought about it, but yes, of course, how is it not going to be there. With that philosophy of my coach I have made this film: when someone trusts you, what you are capable of giving is incredible. When they noticed that confidence, their disabilities disappeared. Everything that appears in the film, even the most absurd, stopping a police car as if it were a taxi and asking them to take you, comes from reality: I have not invented anything.