The Sevillian town of Morón de la Frontera, like much of Spain, has been left with almost no Holy Week this year. The rain forced the cancellation of a good part of the processions of its most traditional festival, declared of National Tourist Interest in 2002. But this Friday, the Borriquita took to the streets of the town again. El Cautivo will also do so in the coming days. And the Christ of the Good Death, known there as
the tumbaíto
because until a few years ago he processioned lying down as he did not pass vertically through the door of his church. Even the people of Morón will be able to see a pass and several Nazarenes flying. This peculiar image, which has already been rehearsed in the streets of the municipality, and which has caused surprise and even stupor among the neighbors, is part of the plot of
When Nobody Sees Us
, a series that, starting last Monday and for eight weeks, will alter the quiet life of Morón.
More information
The best series of the first quarter of 2024
In this municipality, a little less than an hour from Seville and with about 27,000 inhabitants, the series created by Daniel Corpas takes place, adapting the novel of the same name by Sergio Sarria and which is filmed between Madrid and Morón. The eight episodes directed by Enrique Urbizu and produced by Zeta Studios will premiere on Max (the current HBO Max). It is a
thriller
whose action takes place between Friday of Sorrows and Good Friday and in which a civil guard played by Maribel Verdú investigates a suicide and some events that link Nazarenes and drugs (which explains the flying penitents and the passing mentioned above), while a special agent of the United States Army (played by the Cuban Mariela Garriga) investigates the whereabouts of a missing soldier at the Morón air base. You will soon see that these events turn out to be related.
The director Enrique Urbizu and the actress Maribel Verdú, in a moment of the filming of 'When nobody sees us'.Niete
The head of locations in Morón, Rafa Caballero, has been working in the town for a year, where, now, at every step he is approached by people to answer questions about the filming. As Urbizu explained to EL PAÍS during a break in filming this Thursday, it has been necessary to negotiate with brother institutions, the military (they have already filmed at the Getafe air base) and the Civil Guard. “The series is a somewhat unprecedented, risky mix, which allows us a lot of play,” he summarizes.
The images that will be processed through its streets these days rest in a nave in Morón. They are not the ones that the people of Morón see during their Holy Week, but rather creations made of cork after two months of work and inspired by the real ones. In a box is kept the face of a virgin that will later be placed on a cone-shaped wooden frame, while on a table rests a collection of hands in different postures that will complete the image that the devotees will see in the streets when the Virgin has been dressed. This division of the mannequin into parts is not something they have devised for the series, but rather the religious images, when stripped of their cloaks, are like this.
A moment of work on one of the reproductions of the image of a Christ for the series 'When nobody sees us'.Niete
Manuel Ludeña, art director of the series and professional sculptor, shows the result of his department's work of more than two months and that seeks the verisimilitude that Urbizu poses as one of the keys and challenges of this project. In the words of Ludeña, the scenic axis of the series is San Miguel. “What really happens here is a biblical passage, the one in which the archangel Saint Michael banishes Lucifer from heaven. That is not in the script, but it is the axis of the scenery. "Who is who, I can't tell you so as not to spoil it," he explains. Ludeña collaborates hand in hand with the decorator Vanesa de la Haza. She highlights the importance of another location for
When Nobody Sees Us
, the one that will open the series, a house with decoration inspired by Japan and in which they are taking special care. “If you don't like the first thing you see in the series, turn it off and let's go,” she says of a place where the viewer will see a character committing
harakiri
.
Rafa Caballero, head of locations; Vanesa de la Haza, decorator; and Manuel Ludeña, art director, this Thursday in Morón de la Frontera.niete
The respect with which they are working around Holy Week is so much that, as Ludeña and De la Haza explain, they have already considered what will happen to the images they have created when filming ends. “We have offered the brotherhoods to keep the images when we finish,” says De la Haza. “We want this to be used only for this project, so that it doesn't end up in a prop house and can appear somewhere else. Either we leave it in a place where that will not happen, or we destroy it. It's very sad, but it's a way to ensure that they will only be used for this."
Some of the Japanese masks that the Art team has made for the series 'When nobody sees us'.Niete
This is the first important filming that Morón hosts, a town historically linked to the agri-food industry and the olive, to the lime from its quarries and which for centuries has been used to paint the white towns of Cádiz and Seville, and to the air base that Spain shares. and the United States and which still employs a hundred families from Morón. José Manuel Rodríguez, mayor of the town, highlights the responsibility they feel to live up to this production that, in some scenes, will bring together up to five thousand extras and extras, many of them residents of Morón. “Now we are thinking about how we are going to assimilate this and take advantage of this showcase in the face of the handicap we have of being less known than other places,” says the councilor, sitting at the headquarters of the local Sevillista club that now serves as a dining room for the team. of the series.
The rehearsal on a street in Morón de la Frontera of the moment in which one of the Holy Week steps floats in a scene from the series 'When Nobody Sees Us', in an image provided by the production company.Niete
Rafa Caballero tells some ins and outs of the long conversations and negotiations with the brotherhoods until he achieved their collaboration with the production. Or the difficulties involved in recording in a church and obtaining permission from the archbishopric to do so. The church of San Miguel, known as the Cathedral of the Sierra Sur, is another fundamental setting in fiction. Its bell tower, with spectacular views of the town and its surroundings, will be replicated on a set to complete filming. For Caballero, who has 54 different locations in Morón and surrounding areas, the most complex part of his work has been related to Holy Week. “It is a place where they are not used to filming and getting the rhythm and timing is difficult. But in return, the fact that they are not used to filming shows you how dedicated they are and how eager they are,” she explains. And furthermore, it has given them the Holy Week that they have not had this year, even if it is fictional.
Enrique Urbizu, with actors Austin Amelio and Mariela Garriga, this Thursday in Morón de la Frontera.Niete
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on
X
or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_