Quiet Maid is a film with very clean visual language, well-crafted, and aesthetically enjoyable. A young maid of Colombian origin works for a wealthy Spanish family involved in art sales. The maid, Ana, is taken to a summer residence where she's instructed not to leave until the end of summer. Apart from Ana, there are no other maids at the summer residence, and she's responsible for all the chores: washing windows, cleaning the pool, washing the car, cooking, ironing underwear, and so on. Meanwhile, the family enjoys the pleasures of leisure, particularly the newly adult children of the married couple, with whom Ana eventually finds herself in a serious conflict situation, causing panic.
The film unfolds at a calm pace, yet there always seems to be something simmering beneath the surface, a certain tension accumulating. While it appears that the family treats their maid well, there are many contradictions in their behaviour, and by the end of the film, it leaves an impression that perhaps it was all a part of a big experiment in psychological abuse. That is left for the viewer to decide. Although Ana manages to escape the trap, she cannot erase the events from her memory.
The questions are answered by the film's director, Miguel Faus.

First, you did a short film with the same actors and title Calladita. Please tell us how the short story grew into a feature film. What is the difference between your short version and the full version? For you, was it very different to make a full-length feature film for the first time? When you started the short film, you probably already had an idea to make a longer version also. How did you come up with the idea?

When I started writing the short film in 2018-19, I already had in mind that I saw this story as a feature, but at the time I needed to make a short film as my graduation project for the London Film School. So I took a day in the life of Ana and made the short film, and similar events to those that happen in the short film happen also in the feature, around 3/4 into the story. The short film focuses only on one day, whereas the feature spans the whole summer and introduces several new characters and plots. It was a natural progression for me to make my first feature, it was a much longer process but it didn’t feel very different to the short films I made before.

Your filming period both for short and feature film were during the pandemic restrictions. How did this affect your film? Did you have to rethink some scenes, did you have any difficulties because of the virus crisis?

No, the short was made before the pandemic and the feature was shot in 2022 when the restrictions were already finished.

Your film is funded with NFTs and you are one of the fundraisers. Please explain what this means. How did you get the idea? Was it a smooth and easy way of making money for the film? Would you do it again in the future? Does this kind of fundraising have a future?

I wasn’t able to finance the film with the traditional methods, so I devised this innovative plan to fundraise it with NFTs. I created a collection of 2,400 NFTs that were still frames of the short film, and people could buy them if they wanted to contribute money for the budget of the film. It worked quite similarly to traditional crowdfunding (like Kickstarter), with different levels at which people could contribute and also rewards like producer credits or set invites, but here the main reward was the NFT that all backers got. Over a few months, we raised around €750k from around 680 collectors, selling around 1,300 NFTs. It was a little less than we had initially targeted, but it was enough to make the film. It was a very smooth process although it entailed a lot of dedication and hard work, but it was wonderful to pioneer an innovative and decentralized way to fund films. I would certainly like to do it again in the future and think that NFT crowdfunding for films has a very bright future ahead.

From your film first I got the feeling that this rich family treats their maid rather well, but there was a lot of confusion - the maid had to wear a strict uniform, they used a bell to ring when they needed her, the maid was said not to have any free time, told not to leave the house, had to do everything alone. While being polite to her and smiling they kept her as a slave. In real life, in your opinion, is this modern slavery still a widely spread problem?

I think the problem is still very prevalent in many countries, yes, domestic workers who, regardless of how nicely they are treated, have very bad working conditions; not only in terms of horrible compensation but especially in terms of working hours and conditions.

Your film has a happy ending. It's not a Cinderella story, but the story of breaking free. While creating the story, did you have some more unfortunate ends in mind too? In reality, many of these cases end up very badly and there is no hope. And there are many films that end hopelessly, everything starts to fall apart and ends up in ruins and the evil wins. How important is the end of the film or how the story ends, for you?

The ending of a story is very important, I think, and kind of reveals the worldview of the author. Any dramatic story that is well constructed can end well or badly for the protagonist, in the sense that both endings would theoretically “work”, and it is up to the author to decide where they want to take the story, how they want to close it, and what that means. I did consider many possible bad endings for “The Quiet Maid”, and also some more grey endings. But in the end, I went with my heart, because no matter what I can rationally discuss what might be more or less common in real life, I am an optimist and I like the power that cinema has of presenting optimistic worldviews, so I wanted to end my first film on a positive note.

You have a very neat and clean, colorful visual in this film. Smooth camerawork, lots of slow movements, calm pace mostly. As an audience it was very easy to watch and follow, kind of reminded me of the classic Scandinavian films. Please tell us how you picked the visual style, did you have any role models? Tell us a bit about the art department, lightning and camera department work with this move.

I had a great team in every department and I am so happy with their work in the film. In terms of general “style”, I don’t think that’s something you consciously choose, or it shouldn’t be. You just make the film however you feel it, however, you see it in your mind. In terms of specific decisions pointed out in your question, I can say that this very colourful, over-saturated palette was chosen to emphasize the heat of the summer and also the idea of fakeness/artificiality that relates to the hypocrisy of the bourgie world in which the film is set.

Have you started working on some new film projects?

Yes, I’m working on my next film which will be a modern-day Western. I prefer not to say much more about it.

Please tell us one wise advice that you would give to your child - what is important in life?

It’s important to follow your heart and use your life to pursue what you love. Life is too short to waste it.