The Moncloa back room: the first images of the documentary series 'The Four Seasons' are presented

It was one of the highlights of the Iberseries & Platino Industria meeting,

that is being celebrated these days in Madrid: the first images of

the documentary series by the production companies The Pool TM and Secuoya Studios directed by Curro Sánchez Varela that illustrates a year in the life of the Moncloa Palace, “a city of 1,200 inhabitants”, according to the filmmaker, and that will reveal the back room of the institution beyond the current president, Pedro Sánchez.

At least that's how it was defended this morning by both Sánchez Varela, winner of the Goya for best documentary in 2015 with

;

Eduardo Escorial, director of

from Secuoya Studios (audiovisual products without a closed script), and Víctor Martín, production director of The Pool TM, who did thank Sánchez and his team for accepting the proposal.

The documentary only received a red line: that the president's daughters did not appear.

“We understood that it was a personal matter, and we assumed it”, they have assured before a group of producers and creators of the audiovisual and journalists.

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The keys to 'The Four Seasons', the documentary series focused on La Moncloa and Pedro Sánchez

The four seasons

is the provisional title of the series, which is now in the middle of recording, since it covers the operation of the institution from March 2022 to March 2023. If the title is the working one, the producers do not know either. They have caught their fingers with the deliveries and the duration: they propose a series of four episodes of about 45 to 50 minutes.

“But there is still recording time and we have to wait.

From what you can see, there are already powerful images”, Escorial and Martín have defended.

In the five and a half minutes projected, divided into six thematic blocks, many images have been shown of the huge number of anonymous workers in the presidential complex —from the chef to secretaries, middle positions in the Presidency, advisers—, the negotiations in the European Union of the Iberian exception on gas prices, in which the president is seen at the end snorting exultantly, or the summit of NATO heads of state, where the president of the United States, Joe Biden, explains to Sánchez: “When I come I am afraid that my team will not return to Spain”;

and tickets to the Council of Ministers, the previous time there is for the personal chat.

Escorial pointed out: "We portray the work prior to the events, that remains for the media, and of course we will not release anything that affects national security."

Curro Sánchez Varela was interested in the challenge from the beginning: “They called me and I saw it clearly because I am a portrait artist.

We want to tell the story of La Moncloa, of the institution and of the people who work in it.

There are still employees there from the time of Adolfo Suárez.

They are the ones who best explain routines and transformations.”

And how about Sanchez?

"As close as the rest of the workers."

Joe Biden and Pedro Sánchez, at the NATO summit, in an image from 'The Four Seasons'. Secuoya Studios

Escorial wanted to clarify several details: “The idea came from The Pool and we allied ourselves with Secuoya.

And from there we went to speak with Óscar López, the president's chief of staff.

It is a private initiative financed with private money.

If it could have been done with other presidents?

It has already been tried to board before, because you put cameras in a place that interests the Spanish.

This has been allowed with Sánchez, and hopefully it will be repeated as an exercise in transparency”.

There is also no buyer for the series yet, so it is not known when it will be released or if it will be close to the general elections of, predictably, 2024. "We never calculate dates or electoral impacts, we only shoot, package and market when we have finished the first episode.

We have indeed reached an agreement with a European distributor, Beta Films, which will be in charge of international sales”, explained Escorial.

“So the broadcast will not depend on the producers.

If there is any clash with the electoral law, that will affect whoever issues it.”

Entrance to the NATO gala dinner at the Prado museum, in an image from the documentary.

As a filmmaker, the director of

(2016),

(2021) and the series

(2021) commented that he would not have accepted the project if "there was a possibility of interference from Moncloa or of losing my creative freedom".

And he recalled that when signing, he looked for other similar formats, "as does anyone who embarks on a project in which they know there are references".

In his case, the documentary series on the former US president, Barack Obama;

the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron, or

(2016), by Fernando León de Aranoa, about the beginnings of Podemos.

"I find this very interesting."

If León recorded 400 hours in almost two years, the

team knows that he will be filming for a year, but not how much material they will accumulate, nor did they want to reveal their budget, "very tight".

Sánchez Varela insisted that

It is not a hagiographic account of Sánchez, nor that he is an active part of the project: “The story does not focus on the president, therefore it cannot be hagiographic, but rather on the day-to-day life of La Moncloa.

First we determined the most interesting departments, then the characters that were most valuable to us for the story, and finally from the agenda, which they send us every week from there, we chose the events that can help us in the story”.

That is why there will be nothing about the PSOE either.

“In short, we want to create a living and interesting story, and we are not going to stretch the gum”, assured the filmmaker, who confessed what he felt on the first day of filming – he is usually accompanied by a team of 10 people – in the palace: ” I was impressed by the institution's respect for all the workers, who have been there for up to 40 years.

He moved me”.

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