A series that reflects a tragedy. The Mediterranean has witnessed many deaths in its waters. The drama of migration is a constant occurrence, and now fiction brings to television one of the events that left its mark on European legislation before and after. sea law A fishing boat in 2006 Santa PolaFrancisco and Catalina rescued 51 migrants from a boat in the open sea near Malta Among them were a little girl and a pregnant woman.
It is the company of actor and screenwriter Enrique Pérez Vergara (better known as Flipy), produced by Valencia’s public television channel RTVE, Punt and Studio60. The series consists of three episodes lasting approximately sixty minutes and will be broadcast in prime time on À Punt on Mondays and Tuesdays next week. It will later arrive on La 1 de Televisión Española, but a national broadcast date is yet to be determined.
Thus, the cast of the miniseries attended the Puerta de Alicante Mall Yelmo Cines to present the fiction directed by Alberto Ruiz Rojo and featuring actors such as Luis Tosar, Blanca Portillo, Sonia Almarcha, Pau Durà and Carlos Serrano. In this presentation, which was attended by the ship captain Pepe Durá’s wife, Pepi, who wanted to witness first-person viewing of the first part of the three parts of the production in front of a full hall; The importance of telling one of the most important cases regarding the migration crisis from recent times.
Director Alberto Ruiz Rojo is honest now that he’s seen the finished product, admitting that he took the risk of “recording a lot of footage on a boat” against what people outside the project advised him to do: “We had a lot of footage to record inside the fishing boat, and in the end we decided to go out to sea and record from there, as people wanted.. “In the end, we chose this instead of using a water tank” because “a special magic is created when sailing.”
The ship’s crew took fifty migrants on board and took them to the nearest port in accordance with maritime law, but this was the first rescue in the international waters of the Mediterranean and it took some time for authorities and European legislation to know how to act. The ship waited for nine days for the decision of European authorities. Thus, while negotiations were taking place between the diplomacy of half of Europe, more than sixty people lived together in just fifty square meters.
those nine days They were recorded during 18 days of filming. Despite the claustrophobia this can create, actor Victor Clavijo assures: “A great working environment has been createdespecially thanks to the work of director Alberto Ruiz Rojo”.
Based on real events
If there is something special about making fiction based on real events, it is the opportunity to tell the story of the people who experienced that event. Pepi, the wife of the ship captain who gave the order to save all the people, was also present at the event held in Alicante.Pinoso was embodied in fiction by actress Sonia Almarcha.
The actor claimed Bringing someone like Pepi into the series was “a real responsibility”: “When you create a character from scratch, before that character exists, you turn a cape into a coat. However, embodying someone like Pepi with what this requires is something that imposes a certain responsibility on you.” In addition, Almarcha draws attention to the importance of the message conveyed by this series: “Moreover, this project consists of telling a very important subject. He is human, but it is a privilege to be able to trust him, the real hero of this story.
Pepi guarantees that: “It’s another privilege to have Sonia play my role, I don’t know how to describe it because there are so many emotions at the same time,” he admits as he celebrates the story turning into fiction. He took advantage of the incident to demand “policies that help these people” because, in his words, “nothing has changed since then.” Additionally, Pepe Durá’s wife made a surprise with a standing ovation from the audience and a hug from actor Luis Tosar before the screening of the episode.
Filmed in Alicante
The miniseries was shot in scenic locations in Alicante, Santa Pola and Madrid; However, in its new phase, it has become mandatory to benefit from the opportunities of the City of Light. Fermín Crespo, general manager of the audiovisual complex, explained that the launch of this production is “great news and one of the first steps we see coming to life in this new phase of Ciudad de la Luz.”“Facilities that will make the Valencian Community one of the most important shooting locations for all kinds of audiovisual productions in Europe.”
In this sense, Alfred Costa, managing director of À Punt, explained the “importance of a place like Alicante” that makes possible “this magic that co-production has”. Moreover, He wanted to go further and reflect the work of the Valencian audiovisual sector: “With this mini-series, the Valencian audiovisual sector successfully takes a different path Positioning public radio and television at national and international levels”.
Actor Lamine Thior, who plays one of the immigrants rescued by Francisco and Catalina, did not want to forget his fellow extras: “My job in the series is to convey what happened to the other people who were rescued, some of the actors did a great job and that’s why “The extras in this project should be considered as actors without a text”.
A fascinating story
If this project has seen the light, it is thanks to him Enrique Pérez Vergara, better known as Flipy. The filmmaker came across the story by chance through a documentary. “And I felt that behind this human story that fascinated me, there was a product that could be compressed even more.”
However, the transition from reality to fiction requires some changes in the flow of the narrative. Like this, Screenwriter Tatiana Rodríguez recognizes that it is “a great responsibility to portray the lives of people we know, with the aim of framing them in ways that create conflict.”because the truth is that all the people were very nice.” But he explains that he had “total freedom” to write the script for the three episodes that make up the series.
However, after watching it for the first time as a preview at the Puerta de Alicante shopping mall, À Punt will present the first two episodes of the mini-series on Monday, January 15 at 22:00.The final episode will air at the same time on Tuesday, the 16th.