Illustrating an afternoon of shared seclusion in the Catalan Pyrenees, short film It’s Tricky to Take Your Pants Off in the Car explores how past events are recalled when the memories they reflect contribute to the formation of a relationship. Documenting real couple Line and Indra on a trip to the lake, director Beltrán González captures the essence of their behaviour in each others’ company, the natural environment becoming the setting for authentic interactions that sit between fiction and reality.

Diverting into a non-linear narrative through fragmented dialogue and ethereal cinematography, the film mirrors a romanticized account where true life is distorted through a dreamlike lens. With the intention to translate feeling in a precise and moving way, acting experiments were implemented to intensify the emotions conveyed. Prioritizing the couple’s immediate reactions to questions delivered through the shoot, their synergies are communicated in organic facial expressions, woven throughout the footage to give a powerful sense of realism.

Allowing gaps in conversation to create breathing room for unsaid emotions, Gonzalez structures the trajectory of events to imitate the way memories unfold, connected by time, space and spontaneous thoughts. Meditating on the minutiae that power connections, It’s Tricky to Take Your Pants Off in the Car traces the couple’s connection in ode to the poignant moments that solidify relationships, and the mind’s ability to remodel them in memory.