An icy wind sneaks through the slits of a hangar at the Òdena airfield (66 kilometers from Barcelona), one of the filming stages of Los espabilado , a new Movistar + series created by best-selling writer Albert Espinosa (Barcelona, ​​1973 ). The scriptwriter, sheltered to the top to protect himself from a paralyzing cold, it is difficult to distinguish him on the set where he attends a group of journalists among whom is Papel . «There should be no psychiatric. And less, if possible, children: there are 30,000 places in Spain that should disappear, ”claims the author of Red Bracelets , the fiction of international success with which he won an Emmy Kids.

Suddenly Marco Sanz , a Madrid boy who plays Yerai, an orphan suffering from sociopathy and ADHD, and accumulates 10 foster homes at 13 years old.

-Albert, I ask you for a change in the script of the scene. I would dream something that would happen later ...

-Then we see it, Marco [laughs]. I make concessions to the kids before the chains.

The writer's response is addressed to those responsible for generalist televisions who, he explains, were interested in the purchase of the series, but wanted to introduce certain changes in the script. « The hustlers , who have just seen that it is not a casual name, has had five girlfriends. And it has remained the chain that has agreed to give it in full, without modifications, without censorship, ”reveals Espinosa, who acknowledges that he has made a production“ for all audiences, but difficult to sell ”for its contents: a transsexual person, the schizophrenia, an international child escape without money and with a gun, Nazism, aggressive dogs, sexual abuse or stigma associated with mental illness.

«With the issue of cancer, in Red Bracelets , I already noticed that the big chains had a hard time. The tone returns to that style, as in the movie 4th Floor . It is a drama, yes, but that people are going to have fun, mourn and excited , "he added the writer who has transformed his 10 years with cancer in a global experience that Steven Spielberg could not resist.

Before filming Los espabilado , Espinosa decided to enter a mental health clinic for children in Santiago de Compostela in order to observe the therapies that children follow and even interview them. «I spent a week and a half in a psychiatric hospital. I got it by being a friend of its director. And I saw that children live very intensely for the moment, ”he explains. “There should be no psychiatric or drugs with which patients are drugged. Because everything children have can be cured in some other way .

The hustlers , which will be released in 2020, is a song of freedom and difference. Five children diagnosed with various mental disorders travel without money or food in Europe after escaping from a children's psychiatric hospital. Together they undertake a flight forward to find their place in the world. The first mission is to give in Italy with the older brother of Mickeyl'angelo , boy with three disorders and leader of a gang that revolts against stereotypes and stigmatization throughout seven chapters of 25 minutes that together would form a road movie of teenagers in search of redemption.

Along the way, the boys must face the symptoms of their illnesses, strangers with bad intentions and a detective who pursues them. And they do it with humor and courage. With the same freshness that the actors who play them spend.

Álvaro Requena ( Mickeyl'angelo ), 14 years old and from Sant Feliu de Llobregat, speaks: «A child with a disease is still a child. In psychiatric they are treated like crazy. They isolate them. They drug them. But they are not crazy, they are only children with a great inner world. It is isolation that can drive you crazy. You should reflect on that. He completes the baby, Héctor Pérez (Lucas, 11): «My character, who claims to be an angel, suffers hallucinations. But it is society, and being locked up, that drives him crazy.

-Albert, what is the best thing about working with children?

-Your video calls. The audios they send me. And that they become not your children, but small friends, friends forever.

«The message is that life should not tire 12-year-old children. And it is something that happens today ”, summarizes Espinosa.

From 'Blue Summer' to 'Count on me'

'Los espabilado' is a tribute to the kids in general. Inspired by a novel by Albert Espinosa himself ('What I will tell you when I see you again'), the series pays tribute to Antonio Mercero and his iconic 'Blue Summer'. The film 'Count on me' is another of the influences of a comic drama that also drinks from 'The club of the dead poets',' Before dawn ',' The silence of the lambs' and, of course, from 'Someone flew over the nest of the cuckoo '.

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