Interview: Ulises Porra – Under the Same Sun

For his third feature, Ulises Porra embarks on an ambitious cinematic voyage that dives deep into questions of freedom, colonialism, and hybridity. Under the Same Sun (Bajo el mismo sol) revisits early 19th-century Hispaniola — the island now divided between the Dominican Republic and Haiti — to bring together three strangers from distant corners of the world, bound by circumstance and ambition. A young Spanish heir (David Castillo), a Chinese silk-maker (Valentina Shen Wu), and a Haitian army deserter (Jean Jean) unite in a fragile enterprise, confronting not only the island’s untamed nature but also the invisible forces of empire, class, and power and yes tied to a road to riches by way of silk worm farming. As the title suggests, they live under the same sun, share the same soil, and battle the same elements, yet their conditions of freedom remain profoundly unequal.

I had the chance to sit down with Spanish filmmaker Ulises Porra — previously co-director of Tigre and Carajita (2021) — at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Under the Same Sun had its world premiere in the festival’s Centrepiece program. Our conversation explored how Porra researched and wrote for this historical moment, the construction of his three key characters, and the film’s striking visual strategy.