The new fiction bet of TVE is based in Arab lands. Promises of sand , the series that opens this Monday at 22.40 hours in La 1 , tells the story of a group of young cooperators destined in post-war Libya. The plot takes place in six chapters in the fictional city of Fursa, although filming took place over three months in two locations in Tunisia: the port enclave of Sfax and the oasis of Tozeur. «This was an adventure that we could not shoot in Spain pretending it could be Libya. We had to go somewhere that allowed us to imbue the Arab climate, ”explains Amparo Miralles , executive producer of Atlantis Media .
Morocco, Egypt, Jordan ... the producer shuffled other destinations to shoot, but finally opted for Tunisia because it provided, according to Miralles, "greater proximity to Libya, a culture of audiovisual industry and security guarantees." But this decision in favor of plausibility had its counterpart. "There has been no day without a problem," says Miralles, in conversation with this newspaper. "The trip that the characters make is similar to the one we have lived in this shoot", jokes the producer who has been in charge of a team with about 40 people displaced between October and December 2019.
"There are a lot of details that complicated the shooting every day," says Miralles: "It was a constant obstacle course," he insists. From customs problems - "we were not allowed to put the weapons of daring that we brought from Spain" -, to seedlings of collaborators - "in a scene a taxi appears and in reality there are three different cars because we never got the same driver back »-, going through constant power outages or sudden sandstorms in the desert that forced the recording to be suspended.
«It has been a physical and emotional adventure», recognizes Blanca Portillo , one of the protagonists of the series. "All the food was very itchy and I felt terrible," he recalls about his stay in Tunisia, where the technical and artistic teams shared hotel and experience. However, the actress underlines the positive thing about filming there: «The air, the light, the dust of that place is a leading part of a story that has both temperament and beauty; strength and delicacy, ”stresses the interpreter.
Promises of sand makes another important concession in favor of realism by introducing a large number of dialogues in Arabic without doubling, which forces you to read many subtitles to follow the plot. "It was impossible to say that Arabic should not be spoken," justifies Miralles. "The audience today is mature enough to be able to assume that," he adds. "It is risky for a network like TVE, but the story is powerful and interesting enough to let you go and not be a problem," he concludes.
The idiomatic bet has meant an additional challenge for one of the protagonists of the series. Francesco Arca spent three months studying Arabic before filming began. «We work not only the language, but also the way of moving, the way of eating, of praying ...», explains the Italian actor, one of the poles of the love story that spreads a series that is completed with other plots of friendship, adventure and intrigue.
The main role of Promises of sand lies with Andrea Duro , an actress who after many years in television now assumes her first protagonist. "The mix of cultures is very beautiful and all human beings should feed more on this exchange," he says of his stay in Tunisia. «We have millions of prejudices about that world unfortunately. Hopefully there will be a mental openness regarding religions and non-religions! ”He laments. "That is one of the things I bring," he acknowledges.
The cast of the series also includes Daniel Grao , Thais Blume , Marcel Borrás or Jairo Sánchez , among other Spanish actors, as well as a group of local performers. "In Spain there is an important Arab community and he will like us to do something where they have that quota of representation," said Miralles. "This is an integrating series without any doubt," he concludes. A promise with which TVE intends to succeed in the competitive television fiction market.
The life of cooperators without fiction
Promises of sand is then completed with Titans without borders , a program that discovers Spaniards who dedicate their lives to helping others in countries such as Sierra Leone (first installment), Lebanon , Colombia , Tanzania , Bangladesh and Ecuador . "We have done this program to show what is the reality of NGOs that is not what we propose in the series where our goal is only to tell a fiction story," says producer Amparo Miralles .
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