Behind the scenes of the heir to 'Amar es para siempre': a period daily series with prime time ambitions

It is a daily series, but it begins with an action scene typical of a fiction of the prime time. In the first moments of Dreams of liberty, a woman in Spain in the late 1950s flees through the forest with her stepdaughter. She is chased by her husband, who, when she catches up with them, shoots them in cold blood. Immediately, the script jumps back in time to explain how this couple that meets the patterns of a toxic relationship has reached that point, but it will not take many chapters to return to that intense initial moment. The series destined to inherit the legacy of the long-lived Love is forever In the afternoons of Antena 3 he carries his ambitious visual and narrative bar as his flag.

This new fiction soon to be released reflects a very specific Spain and two very different realities, those of a wealthy family, the De la Reina, owner of an elegant chain of perfumeries, and the workers who live right next to the factory that powers the company. The ingredients are the same as always, but much more elaborate, defends its creative team. To the plots full of ambitions, forbidden loves, betrayals and injustices are added the aesthetics—costumes, sets, hairdressing…— typical of the period stories of the on-demand series, which have eight episodes per season. With these deliveries, the new Antena 3 serial would not even have two weeks of broadcast time. But, as Eulàlia Carrillo, the script coordinator of the series, commented in mid-January, “its potential viewer is largely the same as that of the great weekly fictions and has sophisticated its look.”

For Montse García, director of Fiction at Atresmedia TV, the objective has been “to find a captivating story, with impeccable craftsmanship. Only a great series could take the baton of Love is forever”, says. There is the paradox that Love It is very often the most successful content in the afternoon on Antena 3 (and, by extension, the rest of the general television offerings), just a few weeks after its broadcasts end forever. He has been on screen for 18 years, seven of them on La 1 as Loving in troubled times. The ways of producing daily content have changed a lot since 2005 and this new project allows us to make that qualitative leap. There is a good chance that Antena 3 will follow the strategy of previous releases and broadcast the first episode of Dreams of liberty in it prime timeright after The anthill The television coverage at that time of night is double that of the usual slot of the series produced by Diagonal TV.

Its protagonist, Natalia Sánchez, flourished in The Serranos and he cut his teeth years ago precisely with a character in Love is forever. The actress finds the recording of this new series much more complicated, due to the hours spent in the studio and the large number of outdoor sequences that she has, almost all of them in Toledo and El Escorial. The irate husband is played by Alain Hernández, who in his case went through another recent afternoon classic, The secret of Puente Viejo. Both understand that a big initial bet was needed to hook a viewer who has been accustomed to tuning in to its predecessor for almost two decades.

Its two leading actors emphasize that the initial flash is not going to be sporadic. The plots are not unnecessarily extended, aware of the large number of hours on the grid that they must occupy. “In the chapters we are recording now [más allá de la entrega 50], many things continue to happen and very strong,” she says. “There is a level of intensity that is not typical of daily fiction, in which you can stop watching them for a month and, when you get back into it, they continue practically at the same point where you left them,” he completes.

Two microuniverses for Spain in the fifties

In the Boadilla del Monte studios, 24 kilometers from Madrid, where recording is done, two microuniverses have been created in quite a few square meters. Around the corner of an elegant perfume shop is the decoration that recreates a humble tavern for employees. Next is the elegant De la Reina mansion, with wide hallways and luxurious furniture. Next to it, the humble rooms of the workers are full of objects that would remind many viewers of their grandparents' houses. They are recreated with such precision that it is very likely that many of their details—old magazines, old playing cards, sewing kits, and colorful board games—will not appear in plain view and will only be appreciated by the actors who recreate those characters from the past.

At the entrance to the studios, rows of donkeys are piled up, from which hang the clothes of the many characters from Dreams of liberty. Due to its cut and color range, it is easy to identify where the rich area is separated from the humble area. But, as Alberto Cavia, who, along with Montse Sancho, is one of those in charge of its costumes, warns, the precise period recreation of this production makes a small historical exception. He prefers to give a little more color to the workers' outfits, moving them slightly away from the predominant gray and ocher Francoist ones. A daily series is not designed to depress those who watch it, all those responsible agree. The component of hope necessary for a long-term approach is personalized by the character of Begoña. For Sánchez, the actress who plays her, she is “a dreamer woman, with a desire to live and be happy. Her romantic beginnings with Jesus go awry and she begins a struggle to get ahead. This journey is what makes the character “a heroine from head to toe, with all her weaknesses and strengths,” defends the screenwriter who conceived her. Before Dreams of libertyEulàlia Carrillo has supervised and signed hundreds of chapters of The Riera and dozens of Vendetplátwo renowned soap operas from the Catalan regional TV3.

“The plots reflect very well the Spain of those years on a social level, because we did not enter into politics,” says Hernández. “The machismo of that time was evident and normalized and that is why Jesus is going to seem more villainous in the eyes of the spectators than the rest of the characters,” he warns. His character is, therefore, a man of his time, also a victim of the sexist codes that his environment forces him to comply with, but, the actor points out, he also has “more than reprehensible behavior that would not be accepted in any era.” .

Can you hold on Dreams of liberty that high visual bar for a long time? The team has to record one chapter per day, like any other production of these characteristics. Its director, Joan Noguera, trusts in the extensive experience of the series team, whom he has directed in Loving in troubled times. Although the project is designed to last many seasons on the grid, its creators have not been content in these first chapters with developing a generic story that turns its characters into interchangeable archetypes. “We prefer to give identity to the protagonists and their conflicts and we will see in the future, if the time comes, how to open the range and play with other plots that are already present,” says the director.

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