Barren and Empty the Sea is the first project of Cautiva y Desarmada (Captive and Disarmed), a production company from Alicante, Spain. Is this a low-budget film? Yes, indeed; nothing more, nothing less. From the outset its story was customized to fit the hands that would make it. This movie isn’t about faraway adventures, we prefer to stay at home and scratch the surface of the mundane.

The pre-production was done step by step. We started making a pilgrimage through local villages. Along the way we perceived that the screenplay could come to life. The locations we found were much more vivid than those we outlined in ink. The casting process was illuminating on its own terms. The body of an actor reveals things that the screenplay -due to decency, perhaps- leaves out. The shooting felt like an everlasting sigh. Finally, during post-production, this hard-hearted film subdued us.