On the set of 'Doctor García's patients': Nazi party in El Pardo

Jumping from a head to a novel is already a complex, extraordinary alchemy procedure, unique for any work, since not even the privileged mind of an author knows exactly how he will transform the sparks of imagination and the immense effort of documentation into a

of words. for the readers.

But the next step, turning that one-man work into the raw material for an audiovisual blockbuster, is no longer alchemy, but the closest thing to going from a cave with a lit candle to an exploding fireworks factory.

Hundreds of people are working in that fabulous engine room to convert

the penultimate installment of

by Almudena Grandes, in a series: there are 40 years of characters who go from young to old;

scenarios as disparate as Berlin, Croatia, Russia, Buenos Aires, London or Washington;

troops of various armies, of many factions and badges;

period costumes from the thirties to the seventies.

And these days in El Pardo, where EL PAÍS has attended the filming of several scenes with the poet Luis García Montero, the author's widower, together with Mauro, his son, and other members of a still very hurt family, that means getting into a Nazi party in the middle of the estate of what was the general headquarters of the Franco family.

A lot of show and a lot of yuyu.

More information

2018 review of the novel 'Doctor García's patients': Post-war, Nazis, espionage, sex...

“For Spaniards of a certain age, arriving here and seeing it full of Nazis and Francoists is frightening, imposing,” confesses García Montero while two actors with mustaches and slicked-back hair walk past us towards some women in demure headdresses, full skirts and heels. of that season.

One of them is so mimicked with the Nazi aesthetic that it is frightening to see him raise his arm, if only to grab a chocolate from the

with which he will stain his mustache.

In the act the head of wardrobe reprimands him, do not go to stain the vest.

"Almudena would have loved to see all this," smiles the poet.

The poet Luis García Montero (left), widower of Almudena Grandes, during his visit on Thursday to the shooting of the series based on the novel by the writer 'The patients of doctor García'. Álvaro García

The filming of this 10-episode series, a co-production of RTVE, Diagonal TV and DeAPlaneta with the participation of Netflix, began on January 17, just weeks after the death of Almudena Grandes, and there is no actor, actress or member of the crew of the that form a huddle around her family that does not express what the author cared about.

"When I accepted this role, my dream was to have dinner with you two one night," says the actor Tamar Novas upon meeting the poet.

"She's gone, but we'll do it," replies the poet.

"I've read the novel three times to be reliable," Novas continues.

—Here is the Bible that solves everything for us, it is the safety net —supports fellow actor Javier Rey.

Rey plays Dr. García and all his identities, just as Tamar Novas embodies Manuel Arroyo and hers, since, in that cave with the lit candle that was the mind of Almudena Grandes, the author devised a complex espionage story in which The lives of these two friends intertwine with the most unfortunate capers in Spanish, German and Argentine history.

"I have made more characters in this story than in my entire life as an actor," confesses Novas.

"Besides, I'll also get much older."

A moment of the filming of the series, on Thursday in Madrid.

Alvaro Garcia

The prostheses and makeup will help this 35-year-old man, who received a Goya for best revelation actor for

in 2004, age over the decades of his history.

In the 1940s story, the one that concerns us on this sunny day at the Quinta del Duque del Arco in El Pardo, the two friends try to get into Nazi circles in Francoist Madrid to infiltrate a war criminal escape plot to Argentina.

Verónica Echegui is Amparo Priego, García's childhood neighbor, his lover and, ultimately, a Falangist trapped in the doctor's house during the Civil War.

And Eva Llorach is Clara Stauffer, the Nazi who runs the organization.

“The worst thing is that now we have to sing a Nazi anthem in German that we have learned, I am afraid that we will invoke evil,” jokes Llorach with a gesture of a certain chill in the body.

Happy to participate in the project, she also declares herself overwhelmed by the evil dimension of the character she embodies.

"It has been hard to prepare the character, to understand the motivations of Clara Stauffer to always put the principles above anything else."

Under her festive period dress, Llorach hides low ankle boots with which to endure the long day of filming that she has ahead of her because, as Luis García Montero recalls that he heard Paco Rabal say: “Actors are paid for waiting".

The costume team works with the actors of 'Doctor García's patients'.Álvaro García

For this reason, the chosen scene is repeated over and over again while Montse Sancho, the costume designer, is pinning an Argentine pennant to the uniform of the actor who will play a Videla colonel the next day.

“I have clothes to dress 4,000 people”, she says in the space where boots, uniforms, party dresses and whatever is needed are piled up, while she adds fake stars.

“The uniform of an army is the same, be it plain or general.

From there, badges are added.

Except in the case of Spain, of course, where when two sides faced each other, the different badges began, the costumes of militiamen, workers and combatants who did not have a uniform and all the misfortunes that came.

The greatest incarnation of the contradictions of that Spain is above all in the character of Amparo, that Falangist trapped in Madrid under the bombs, lover of Guillermo García and treacherous.

Verónica Echegui has taken on the challenge and says that “it is so well written” that it has not been difficult for her to “unravel her personality and motivations.

In her, a great need to love coexists with the inability to do so and an unhealthy pride that prevents her from accepting the consequences of her actions or the reality of her relationship with Guillermo”.

A moment during the filming of the series at the Quinta del Duque del Arco, in El Pardo.Álvaro García

Suddenly, everyone disappears, there is silence.

In this palace of the Duke of Arco located on a hill in El Pardo that Franco turned into his farmhouse (one of his farmhouses) the cameras are turned on, the microphones are raised, the vintage cars roll and the action begins.

The Nazis who escaped from Germany, who lived so peacefully in the Spain of the dictatorship, are about to start their party.

And about to deal with two honest Republicans who are going to mess it up.

And that explosion of creativity that a blockbuster implies is underway.

Without Almudena Grandes, but with Almudena Grandes.

As García Montero concludes: “What a good time it would have been!”.

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