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-THESIS-
REVERSO starts with a simple idea.
Human beings need to divide the world in two to sustain ourselves.
Correct and incorrect.
Order and chaos.
Up and down.
System and dissidence.
Common sense and crazines.
We need to package external reality and classify it so that everything fits within a pattern that can reassure and guide us.
Fiction taught us that one of those sides represents freedom.
That there is a place outside the system from which we can escape.
A bridge to cross to get to the other side.
REVERSO breaks that possibility.
There are no two worlds.
There is a single structure capable of adopting diferent forms to keep working.
Up seems to represent the invisible control:
The learned norm, the established direction.
The need to maintain a stable identity, the correction turned into behavior.
Down seems to represent the break:
The chosen identity, the difference transformed into belonging.
The freedom transformed into a narrative, the need to build oneself outside the norm.
But it does not destroy the system.
It only allows one to inhabit it from another narrative.
The dissidence can also become a structure.
The difference can also become a norm.
Even rebellion needs recognition to exist.
That´s why REVERSO doesn´t present a conflict between two places.
It represents an internal positioning conflict.
The cuestion is not: Where are you?
The cuestion is: Who are you in both?
Because both worlds can become a refuge and both can become a prision.
REVERSO doesn´t talk about escaping.
It talks about recognizing the structure even when we think we have gotten out of it.
To understand that refuge and prision can take different forms and stay the same.
Because the real tension was never between up and down; it lies in discovering that we invented both to escape from ourselves.
-ARQUITECTURE-
ACT 1- UP - INITIAL ERROR (90º)
Alia doesn´t fit. She doesn´t feel aligned with the system and doesn´t wish to be.
The feeling of being different convinces her that the problem lies outside.
Her internal coherence serves as a compass when deciding what to do, but that doesn´t make existing any less frustrating.
Her only mechanisms are to resist, fight, or flee. Never to adapt.
Her mistake is thinking that if she can´t fix what´s wrong outside, the solution is to change places.
ACT 2 - DOWN - CHANGING THE SCENARY DOESN´T CHANGE THE POSITION (180º)
She finally finds an alternative place. Here the system seems destroyed.
Everything feels more coherent and aligned, even if from the opposite side.
The change of scenery makes the old frustrations disappear. The pressure loosens. Hope appears.
It seems she has found a place to turn to when up squezees too hard.
ACT 3 - MIRROR - WHEN DOWN BECOMES UP (270º)
Two different places mean two different systems. Not the absence of a system in one of them.
Alia discovers that the old frustrations disappeared only to be replaced by new ones.
Her partner doesn´t help. Not every place can be the problem.
There are no spaces without codes. That´s why what seemed opposite ends up becoming a reflection.
ACT 4 - CHOICE - RUPTURE OR REMAIN (360º IN PROCESS)
Alia understands that perhaps the places were never the problem. That alignment doesn´t come from the external but from the internal.
You don´t turn the world so it points north. You turn yourself.
Many of the conflicts we place outside also arise within us: fear, insecurity, self-deception, the need for control.
But on this axis there is still only understanding.
ACT 5 - CONSEQUENCE (REVERSO)
Understanding only makes us orbit around the same axis.
The true movement, the one the Hatter pushes Alia to make, by her own choice, is deciding what to do with what she has understood.
To take a position.
Not from comfort but from coherence.
To inhabit the world from a real awareness of oneself. Without a mask. Without shelters.
And to be able to answer calmly a single question:
Who are you?
-CHARACTER PHILOSOPHY-
HATTER
"WHO HAD EVERYTHING AND LOST IT. NOT BY MISTAKE. BY NECESSITY"
BEFORE THE REVERSO:
A perfect life. Family, status, intelligence and charisma. Everything in its place.
Everything working.
Except him.
He adapted. Built the perfect mask.
By day, the model man. By night, alone, the guilt.
Living too long in someone else`s skin cannot be sustained. It hurts.
The impostor eventually gains ground and suffocates him.
There is no way out. None except self-destruction.
Alcohol, fights, scandals. He doesn´t know how to run away except forward.
His circle grows to despise him. Applause turns into rejection, leaving only one path.
Break. Disappear.
Restart.
REVERSO:
Now he is no one but more himself than ever.
The world is a curious place and even more so the people who inhabit it.
He has learned, although late.
He is no victim; he does not torment himself. He accepts.
His weapons: irony, provocation and silences.
The demon lives inside. He is content to play his part. To direct.
He detects the crack in others because he recognizes it but he does not save.
He unsettles, presses and moves you.
Whether you fall or not is up to you.
He did and he knows that getting back up costs an entire lifetime.
ALIA
"THE LOOSE VERSE"
BEFORE REVERSO:
Middle class family. Typical school. Linear. Normal.
Alia no.
Since she was a child, she didn´t understand the game. The world was illogical. The rules didn´t make sense.
She looked but didn´t participate.
She tried to mask, but she didn´t know how to do it. Something inside her wouldn´t let her.
Something inside was revealed.
She tried to dissapear, to go unnoticed. It didn´t work.
On the outside: constant friction.
On the inside: another place.
A universe where she could breathe.
REVERSO:
Alia has grown up. She is 38 years old and is an Architect.
Too creative a woman, too logical, too much of everything.
She is not a victim, nor a martyr. It´s not someone special.
She is intense, stubborn, warrior and uncomfortable and she is also quick, curious, sarcastic and intelligent.
Alia is tough. She made herself tough.
Her biggest mistake is not rebelling. It´s doing it without measuring the cost.
Alia fights all the battles. Against one, against many, against all…
Against the system.
She doesn´t respect imposed authority; she only kneels before the one who deserves it.
And it´s just that you dont´t defeat Alia.
You convince her.
ADRIAN
"THE PERFECTION OF THE MASK"
BEFORE REVERSO:
Rich kid. He is born into a world already perfect. Already built.
He is loved, accepted and cared for. He only has to go with the flow.
From a young age he is seduced by luxury, admiration and the spotlight.
Always surrounded by important people, his obsession is to belong.
To achieve that, he learns to build a person out of fragments of everything that fascinates him.
Not through understanding but through imitation.
What matters is not being. What matters is seeming. And pleasing.
No matter the cost.
REVERSO:
"Adrien" (Adrian by birth) has found his place in the social sphere.
His new name sounds French. Chic. It matches his perfect smile, the one he flashes when conversations turn intellectual.
He is handsome. And he knows it.
At 48, he runs the architecture studio founded by "papa".
The hard work is handled by the best professionals money can hire.
As for design and style —those are his domain.
He dresses in the latest fashion. Stylish, polite and condescending toward those less fortunate than him.
Mama always instilled Christian charity in him.
Considered an eligible bachelor, he has no shortage of admirers. Nor of suitors.
His charisma and his ability to filter out any gesture that doesn´t fit the image he proyects keep him afloat.
Adrien is happy with what he conveys. He is happy with his mask.
The rest stays behind the curtain.
"The show must go on"
MARGARET
"SYSTEM METHODOLOGY"
BEFORE REVERSO
Working-class family. Linear, mechanical life. Always inside the system.
Margaret was born with an instruction manual. She grew up, understood it and fit right in.
Model student and model child. She was always exactly enough at everything.
She was never out of tune. She moved forward without friction, following the marked path.
Always constant. Always correct.
And disciplined.
Very disciplined.
REVERSO:
59 years old. Senior Architect.
Margaret holds a position of responsibility.
She got there through tenacity. Step by step and without noise.
A slender woman, athletic and healthy.
Methodical. Practical. Not very talkative.
She is a firm woman.
Margaret understands the system. She observed it, learned it and it works for her.
That´s why she never questions it. For her, everything is clear.
If you follow the rules, you advance.
It´s simple.
Orders don´t bother her. They support her.
She needs to know what is expected of her and fulfill it. It´s not that complicated.
The world spins at the same speed every day.
You just have to catch its rhythm.
And keep up.
CHORUS
In both wolds, up and down, there are presences that accompany the journey of Alia.
They are not defined individually, because they don´t operate as characters in themselves.
They are catalysts, drivers of the processes and stages she goes through.
They make every step possible, every change.
They provide context to each debate.
The chorus accompanies.
Without them, the journey would not be complete.
But they don´t need to be in the spotlight to exist.
-PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLDS -
"UP"
POSITION:
It represents the system. It is perceived as an imposed order that operates under the appearance of personal choice.
Everything tends to be guided and controlled, almost choreographed.
Transgression may exist, but only when it is absorbed by the system itself. The path is not questioned.
It is followed.
VISUAL EXPRESSION:
Straight lines and rigid geometry predominate. The palette moves between whites and greys.
Color appears occasionally, controlled. The city feels dense and vertical. The sky remains distant.
Materials oscillate between heavy and extremely light, but always artificial. The organic has no place in this enviroment.
CAMERA:
The camera leans toward stability. Movements are contained, controlled.
Cuts feel dry, without emotional transition.
The composition seeks balance, without deviation.
SOUND:
The soundscape is constant and mechanical. Present, rhytmic, yet saturated.
Sound accompanies without imposing itself.
"DOWN"
POSITION:
It is not conceived as an anti-system, but as a reinterpretation.
The structure doesn´t change; the gaze does.
It is the same world observed from another position.
It does not propose rupture, but a different way of reading what already exists.
VISUAL EXPRESSION:
A subterranean space with an industrial character. Curves and straight lines coexist according to function.
The mix of materials, color and textures generates an apparent chaos that finds coherence.
Light is not uniform; it varies according to need. Nothing is definitive. Objects adapt and assume multiple uses.
The organic tends to impose itself on the normative.
CAMERA:
Movement becomes more fluid, without seeking to be pleasant.
Transitions tend to be more rhytmic. When cuts occur, they respond to intensity, not structure.
The camera integrates itself into the space. And as it approaches, it may even invade.
SOUND:
It is built from a duality.
On one hand, the music gains presence and defines.
On the other, a muffled background persists, a constant echo of the world above, one that never fully disappears.
I introduce myself.
My name is Janire.
Who I am is not the impotant part.
But what´s behind this is.
I´ve been building REVERSO for too long to explain it quickly.
And perhaps that wouldn´t be the right way anyway.
I can´t send you the whole thing.
But I can send enough for it to be understood.
REVERSO didn´t begin as an idea.
It began as a friction that never quite went away.
Today, I´m placing it in front of someone I sense might recognize it.
I´m not looking for validation.
I´m looking for a critical eye.
What to do whith it is in your hands.
If it doesn´t connect, that´s fine.
But if it does,
I´m on the other side.
Sincerely.
"Heaven above and hell below I know pieces of both of me…"
7:1 - Thirty Seconds to Mars