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Leila
 Director’s
Statement
Leila
is my first screenwriting collaboration with my sister. It
came about because we wanted to explore a relationship between a
younger woman and an older man that was metaphysical and poetic
rather than romantic. We first developed Robbie’s quirks and
his obsession with time. Then we had to answer the question --
why is Robbie entering Leila’s life at this moment? It all
congealed with the idea of Leila shutting down after a traumatic
experience and Robbie’s need to open her heart before it’s too
late.
Visually, I experimented with two contrasting looks for
Leila. The salsa club is where Leila enjoys her passion and
where she is most alive. It’s a warm place, with fully saturated
reds. Leila’s coffee shop, however, represents the empty state
of Leila’s heart. It’s literally empty; she has no customers.
For colors, it’s very desaturated and cool.
For these two different looks, I turned to Edward Hopper. I am
continuously inspired by the colors and framing of his artwork.
His simple paintings well capture the human condition and speak
volumes; women stare wistfully into the distance—women who are
obviously so utterly alone. Their souls squelched, the
subjects’ yearning is palpable. Yet there’s always a small
flame of hope in their eyes… a constant look into the distance
searching for that thing or person that would bring them an
escape.
The SALSA club
This is the place where Leila is in her element. Sexy and
talented, Leila flourishes when she is on the dance floor.
I wanted the look of the salsa club to reflect her passion as
well as that heart-throbbing feeling one gets when s/he steps
inside a salsa club. Highly saturated warm colors, like
reds and yellows, evoke the smoldering atmosphere and the
sensual nature of the dance.
When salsa dancers move, it’s almost as if they are of one body.
Therefore, I wanted the colors of the set to blend with the
colors of wardrobe so that it feels as if it’s one unit.
The lighting is low and red to create a mysterious air to the
club. It’s a place where anything can happen,
exciting… or bad.
The coffee shop
As the metaphor for Leila’s heart after her painful experience
on the dance floor, the look of the coffee shop differs starkly
with the look of the salsa club. The coffee shop is
lifeless and is the place where Leila is trapped by her own
unwillingness to confront the past and move forward. It’s
a place with cool colors, but monochromatic and barren, like
paintings of the fall and winter seasons.
If you look carefully at the production design, you’ll notice
Leila’s obsession with numbers all over – the canisters behind
the counter, her shirts. And a really observant eye will
notice that in the opening pan of the coffee shop, before her
attack, the canisters behind the counter are orderly and
logically numbered. But in the rest of the movie, the cans
are relabeled with random numbers… numbers that turn up in
Robbie’s dialogue…
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