“Queer people exist, and we need to be represented in film”
IMAGE BY ASIER CORERA
It’s summer in Bilbao. For 20-year-old Jone, this means the youthful glow of carefree party nights and falling in love. However, her days are filled with more adult fare – juggling work while caring for her widowed father, recently incapacitated with Parkinson’s disease. Anchored by Olaia Aguayo’s electric central performance, Jone, Sometimes is a moving story of love and family that is thrilling, intimate and all-too-human.
DIVA chats with director Sara Fantova ahead of BFI Flare 2026.
Why was it important for you to tell this story?
Jone, Sometimes is my first film. When I was thinking about what I wanted to tell and what I wanted to talk about, I was sure that with this first film I needed to try to explain something very close to me – something I could portray with total detail and honesty.
The film opens up many themes, but for us one of the most important was talking about the fear of being left alone, the fear of illness and death, and about how important it is to talk about these things in order to care for family and friendship relationships. That is the central theme, even though we explore many others.
Was there a specific moment or reference point which inspired your film?
Yes. In 2018 my father let me read his youth diaries. Immersing myself in those texts helped me connect with him from a different place, and they are undoubtedly the seed of the film.
Did making this film change how you understand your own queerness?
I suppose in some way it did. It was very important for us to tell the story of a queer girl, a lesbian, but without that being the central theme of the film. In other words, Jone falls in love with Olga during that summer, but it is not a conflict for her.
Exploring this and writing about it – how to portray their relationship, how to make them connect, how to make them have to let each other go – raised many questions for us, and in some way it has surely made me understand my own identity in a more complex way.
BFI Flare is a celebration of LGBTQIA+ storytelling. What do you hope LGBTQIA+ audiences at BFI Flare take away after watching your film?
I hope they are moved and connect with Jone’s story. I also hope they feel represented in some way, and that the fact that being a lesbian is not a conflict in the film is comforting to them.
BFI is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. What LGBTQIA+ film from the last four decades has changed your life and why?
Bar Bahar (In Between) is a film that stayed with me very deeply, because it tells the story of three women trying to resolve their conflicts while also searching for their own freedom and self determination.
On the other hand, in a very different way, Booksmart also stayed with me. It’s the typical teen film – light and funny – in which a queer character appears without that being a source of conflict for the character.
Why is it so vital that we continue to support and celebrate spaces like BFI Flare for the next 40 years?
It’s my first time at BFI, but I understand that, like other festivals, it is important to create spaces like this so that films which may not be able to access the more mainstream circuit can still reach audiences, and so other voices and perspectives can be heard.
BFI Flare has been running since 1986. What do you think queer audiences in 1986 would make of your film?
It’s very difficult to answer this question – I don’t know if I would have made my film in 1986. But I suppose they would have welcomed it warmly, and I hope they would have felt identified with it.
Why do you think LGBTQIA+ filmmaking is so important in 2026?
I think it is important that as many voices as possible are represented in cinema, and the LGBTQIA+ perspective is one of those important voices, so it cannot disappear, just like many others. Queer people exist, and we need to be represented in film.
What queer cinematic ancestor would you want sitting next to you at your BFI Flare screening and why?
Victorina Durán, a Spanish costume designer from the 1920s.
The 40th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival takes place 18 – 29 March at BFI Southbank. JONE, SOMETIMES premieres at BFI Flare on 21 March. You can find out more about BFI Flare here: whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare
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