When actress Verónica Echegui died in August, she left a series awaiting release, filmed last fall and winter, and which ended up being her final work. This series is city of shadowsthat Netflix releases this Friday and in which Echegui plays alongside actor Isak Férriz. Each of the six episodes of this fiction ends with a final dedication: “For Verónica Echegui with all our love and admiration”.
In city of shadowsEchegui’s usual light is more muted due to the demands of the storyline. This thriller dark, based on the first of the novels in the literary saga written by Aro Sáinz de la Maza, Gaudi’s executionerdelves into the scars of its characters, notably those of its male protagonist, and those of the city that hosts the plot, Barcelona. The starting point is the macabre assassination of an important businessman, burned alive while hanging from the facade of Gaudí’s La Pedrera. The case is entrusted to Mossos inspector Milo Malart (Férriz), who had been suspended for insubordination and who is facing his personal drama after the death of his nephew and a traumatic family situation. Milo will be accompanied by police sub-inspector Rebeca Garrido (Echegui). Their personalities clash from the start: he, passionate and obsessive; she, cerebral and methodical. But they will end up understanding and supporting each other in their shared solitude.
From there a thriller in which we detect clichés of the genre: the investigators with opposing personalities, the tormented protagonist full of inner demons, the darkness of the setting, some forced dialogues, unscrupulous journalists here elevated to maximum power… But we appreciate that he tries not to fall into the usual over-explanation and to give the production a personal identity. The latter result is achieved by placing Barcelona in first place.
Unlike so many Netflix productions which, in an effort to be as international as possible, could be developed anywhere in the world, city of shadows This can only take place in Barcelona. Each of the six episodes is titled a work by Antoni Gaudí: Casa Milà – La Pedrera, Palau Güell, Crypt of Colonia Güell, Park Güell, Pavilions Güell And Holy Family. This is not just a wink in the series. The plot is closely linked to the history of the city’s transformation over the past decades and to the two sides of the coin of this progress. Through archive images you can see the evolution of Barcelona from the beginning of the 20th century until today, which in the series takes place in 2010, more precisely, the days before the consecration of the Sagrada Familia by Pope Benedict XVI.
The weight of the past is continually present in the series created by Jorge Torregrossa (director, among others, of the Netflix hits The body on fire And Confidentiality), both in the personality of its protagonist and, as we gradually discover, in the unfolding of the police plot and in the way of presenting Barcelona. However, the density of the series makes it heavy in a good part of the plot, as if it had been infected by the character of Milo Malart and this shadow which also seems to surround the character of Verónica Echegui. This also happens when they appear flashbacks that the viewer will have to locate and understand. Darkness, shadows and pain imbue a series with a personality that, precisely for this reason, can expel those looking for levity and entertainment. city of shadows It’s something else, for better or for worse.
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