Eduard Cortes, director of series like Not one more and Merli and feature films like The Pelayos, faces accusations of online sexual harassment by 27 women. According to the alleged victims, two of whom were minors at the time of the events, the filmmaker offered them work in exchange for images in which they appeared naked or engaging in sexual practices.
The accusations against Cortés (60 years old) date back to October of this year, when the director of photography Silvia Grav He pointed out publicly on Twitter, causing a wave of endorsements and testimonies. In a report published this Wednesday, The Country He claims to have had access to more than a hundred conversations in which the director makes these types of demands.
Through social networks
According to the women allegedly harassed by Eduard Cortés, he contacted them through social networks (Facebook, Myspace, Fotolog and Instagram, among others) or by video call. Cortés presented himself as a film and TV director, He claimed to be interested in them for a project titled ‘Ingrid’ and, with the excuse of the demands of his role, he began to demand sexual content from them.
“The only thing I can say is that I did a project called Ingrid, which was linked to social networks, and I contacted a lot of people during that time. [antes de 2009, cuando se estrenó el filme]”Cortés declared in a telephone conversation with El País. In another statement, supervised by his lawyer, the director affirms that the conversations took place “within the hypothetical” and were never accompanied by “explicit proposals.”
“Everything related to photos, videos and videoconferences was never part of the project,” says Cortés. And he continues: “They were dynamics that were established between two adults and with mutual consent. The rest belongs to the intimate and personal sphere.”
One of the accusations, made anonymously by a woman who was 16 years old at the time of contacting the director, claims that this chatted with her for four years, between 2014 and 2018, and that their relationship ended when Cortés asked him to travel to Barcelona for a camera test. “He made me believe that I could be an actress,” she declares, “but I didn’t go, I didn’t trust him.”
“He asked me if I would be willing to do a play that would make me grow in my career in exchange for being anesthetized in the last act and the audience being able to do whatever they wanted with me,” says the actress, for her part. Sonia Blanco. Faced with this accusation, Eduard Cortés affirms that the project he refers to was an adaptation of The house of the sleeping beauties, novel by the Japanese Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata whose premise fits that description.
An investigation that was never carried out
In October of this year, after Isabel Grav’s complaints, the Catalan Film Academy initiated an investigation against Eduard Cortés. However, the director left this institution, so the process was closed and could not be carried out unless he re-entered it.
Likewise, the Catalan Academy suggested that those affected contact the lawyer’s office. Carla Vall, whose fees (850 euros per person per complaint, just to start the procedures) turned out to be too high for most of them. The Spanish Film Academy, for its part, referred them to the newly created Aspacia foundation for victims of sexual violence in the industry.
“At Aspacia they told me that they couldn’t offer us anything better than the Catalan Academy,” says the actress. Norah Alexandra Vega. And he continues: “The Catalan Academy told us that they were going to create a commission, but we now find out that Eduard Cortés has left before they investigate him. They have not even contacted us nor do they know our testimonies. “I can understand why many women do not report.”
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