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The darkest and rainiest Malaga serves as the setting for 'The Snow Girl'

2023-01-27T04:21:21.894Z


Milena Smit, Aixa Villagrán and Loreto Mauleón star in the series that Netflix premieres this Friday, an adaptation of the book by Javier Castillo in which Jose Coronado and Tristán Ulloa also participate


He has sold almost two million books in Spain and has seen them published in 60 countries in a dozen languages, but Javier Castillo (Mijas, Málaga, 36 years old) had to sit on the floor when his agent told him that Netflix had taken an interest. for adapting his novel

The Snow Girl

.

“It was amazing,” she recalls.

Also a great challenge.

The plot of the book, which takes place in the streets of New York, had to be transferred to Spain.

She swept home.

Vigo, Madrid or Barcelona were considered, but the filming ended in the capital of Malaga.

“This city has it all”, underlines the writer.

Malaga is not Manhattan, but it is not necessary.

It demonstrates it with its chameleonic presence in this series that Netflix premieres this Friday, January 27 with Milena Smit and Jose Coronado as protagonists and the city itself, in its darkest and rainiest version, as a backdrop.

Malaga is fashionable as a tourist and cultural destination.

Also as a place to move to to work in the technology sector.

Now it is also the setting for a dramatic

thriller

that begins with the disappearance of five-year-old Amaya Martín during the parade of the Three Kings.

There begins a dramatic search in which a young journalist, Miren Rojo —Milena Smit— an intern for the newspaper

Sur

and a victim of rape, has a lot to say.

With the help of her teacher, classmate and friend Eduardo —Jose Coronado— she tries to find the girl while she searches for herself, as if finding her would serve as redemption.

She does it in parallel with the police investigation, led by inspector Belén Millán, played by the Sevillian Aixa Villagrán (

perfect life)

.

More information

Javier Castillo: the man from Malaga rejected by publishers who became the third best-selling author in Spain

Women are protagonists in this production by Atipica Films (

La Peste, La isla mínima

) where Loreto Mauleón (

Patria

) and Cecilia Freire (

Velvet

) also have a fundamental weight.

They are accompanied by Raúl Prieto (

Riot Police

), Tristán Ulloa, Julián Villagrán and Marco Cáceres (

I don't like driving

), among a string of secondary characters from Malaga.

The six chapters —directed by David Ulloa and Laura Alvea— are loaded with jumps in time and have male violence in the background.

Just the one that all women face in one way or another in the series, adapted by Jesús Mesas and Javier Andrés Roig (

Vis a Vis, I'm alive)

.

The writer Javier Castillo, author of 'The Snow Girl', this Monday in Malaga. Garcia-Santos (El Pais)

"The culture of rape is put on the table," said Jose Coronado this Wednesday.

"It is important to give visibility to these issues, such as sexual assault or child pornography, because they respond to the harshness of the reality we live in," insisted Milena Smit, serious.

Later, more relaxed, she recounted that for her role as an obsessive investigative reporter she had copied Coronado's work in

Periodistas .

.

Both participated this week in the promotion of the series and walked the red carpet for the premiere of the first chapter at the Albéniz cinema in Malaga, "an opportunity to see the series shine on the big screen", highlighted Coronado.

The author of the book had vertigo.

“Did all that come out of my head?”, he wondered to later remember the days of writing in the library in Fuengirola, where he lives.

Each item of the

bestseller

It has been transferred to the series in a sort of translation of the North American context into Spanish.

The main plot line has been adapted to a new setting far from the Big Apple and close to the Mediterranean.

"The disappearance of a girl is a universal story that is understood anywhere in the world and it is a wise move to bring her to Malaga," Coronado insists.

The Malaga origin of Javier Castillo also weighed in on the decision, to whom the production team opened the door to participate and listen to his opinions.

Among them, that of vindicating local event journalism that, in his opinion, is light years away from sensationalism.

The author remembers that he was writing the novel when all of Spain was looking at Totalán to see how a huge operation of 300 people was trying to get the boy Julen out of a well: “That shocked me.

It was all very awful

Aixa Villagrán, in a chapter of 'The Snow Girl'. NIETE/NETFLIX

Castillo participated in the script revisions, in the technical meetings, visited the shooting and even dared with a cameo.

The series walks its plot —and the occasional forced Andalusian accent— through a Malaga that teaches its truths.

That of the popular neighborhoods and that of its high society.

The journalist's house and the newspaper's office are located in the El Palo neighborhood.

In La Malagueta, the home of an important businessman.

Beyond, the Capuchinos neighborhood, Soho, Sacaba Beach, the Gaona Institute, La Araña beach.

"We got out of the clichés and many

malagas

are seen ," celebrates Castillo.

More will be seen in other short-term productions: Netflix filmed scenes for its British series

Kaos

months ago .

Amazon Prime Video also filmed part of

Los Farad

and in the company of Mediaset España they shoot

Urban these days.

Life is ours.

Malaka

also chose Malaga in 2019 as its main stage, as

Brigada Costa del Sol

did with the Malaga coast.

Milena Smith and Jose Coronado, in 'The Snow Girl'. NIETE/NETFLIX

In search of locations are DeA Planeta and The Mediapro Studio, who are working on the adaptation of the first two best-selling novels by Javier Castillo himself:

The day sanity was lost

and its sequel,

The day love was lost

.

The writer – who presents his new novel,

The Crystal Cuckoo

, in February – hopes that Netflix will also take the step to record a second season of

The Snow Girl

based on his literary continuation,

The Game of the Soul

, which he wants to close with another novel on which he is already working.

“He has already written and we have done our job.

Now it's up to the viewers.

I hope you watch the series and like it.

It would be a luxury to be able to continue telling this story”, concludes Milena Smit.

The public will have the verdict.

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.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-01-27

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