Endorsed by Almodovar for the ‘Best Debut in Spanish Cinema in Years,’ Alauda Ruíz de Azua Now Shoots Her First TV Series
09.11.2023 - 11:27
/ variety.com
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “It is undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years,” Pedro Almodóvar announced of Alauda Ruíz de Azua’s movie “Lullaby,” as it began to prove one of Spain’s liveliest sleepers of 2022, going on to score a Spanish Academy Goya Award for new director. Having made such an illustrious first feature, what kind of TV debut could Ruíz de Azua make directing her first series? Some large inkling was given on Wednesday as Movistar Plus+ opened up the set of miniseries “Querer” to a select delegation of Spanish press.
In short, if on-set interviews are anything to go by, in her TV debut Ruíz de Azua returns to an eye-opening intimate family drama set in her lush native Basque Country, a story which delivers once more some uncomfortable truths about women’s role in traditional family structures. One large question which the series may pose is whether the most prevalent and dangerous kind of machismo is that practised by people who are never conscious of being machista at all.
It’s no small matter. Like “Lullaby,” many viewers may ask if they, or their parents, say, have been guilty or victim of the same behaviour pictured in the series.
Set in the current day, and laced by genre drive as both courtroom drama and psychological thriller, “Querer” begins when Miren, after more than 30 years of marriage and two sons, abandons the family home and goes to a police station with her lawyer. She arraigns husband Iñigo for continuous rape during a marriage which everyone thought perfect.
As his sense of self threatens to crumble, Iñigo, a prominent, well-respected Basque businessman, counters he’s done nothing wrong, feels outraged and wronged. Centring on a mother-daughter
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