To resurrect the Spanish series and give them a spin to adapt them to the new times, El internado (2007-2010) had a good handful of ingredients that seem to capture the attention of viewers. Highlights a youth drama almost revered by the generation that grew up with its protagonists Blanca Suarez, Ana de Armas, Yon Gonzalez, and Martino Rivas, a terrifying location and an addictive mystery.
This Friday, February 19 Amazon Prime Video premieres El internado Las Cumbres (2021), a reboot or restart of fiction that moves the original premise to a strict reintegration center conveniently isolated from the world. There his problematic students, a new roster of promises headed by Asia Ortega (Les de l’hoquei), Albert Salazar (AKA), the son of Imanol Arias, Daniel Arias (Tell me), or Daniela Rubio (The hunt, Monteperdido), they will have to face both its strict rules and centuries-old enigmas.
The proposal to make a new series was a surprise Laura Belloso, co-creator of both the original series and this new version confesses to. I did not have in mind to recover this story, but I immediately understood the reasons, on the one hand, nostalgia, and on the other the need to find a connection with the public in a panorama with a wide range of series he explains about this production of The Mediapro Studio and Atresmedia Studios which has also resurrected Physics or Chemistry and soon Los Protected and Los Hombres de Paco- for Amazon Prime Video. The platform where, by the way, you can see the original series.
Logically the first objective of El internado Las Cumbres is to replicate the success of El internado Laguna Negra, a Globomedia and Antena 3 production that achieved a screen share of over 20% over its seven seasons. But to try Belloso was clear that they had to create a series with its own personality that could reach both the original viewers and the new generations all this after the television revolution caused by streaming platforms starting with the way it now consumes the content.
You compete with series from all over the world the way to visualize and relate to the series is different because it all hangs at the same time and there is also the reduction of the format to 50 minutes, which is more gratifying for the scriptwriters and directors because you allow the story to be centered on the mystery plot the energy that pulls everything says Belloso recalling the 75 minutes of the original and the many subplots that served to fill that footage.
If the enigmatic past of Laguna Negra came to connect with the Nazis, in Las Cumbres an old lodge will be the source of many of the secrets. We have generated a universe with its own language and mythology where space was paramount. That is why we placed it in a monastery, an imposing building full of history, says Belloso about the Irache Monastery, in Navarra, where they have recorded the series. We wanted to connect the present of the boys with a remote past, which in this case will be the Middle Ages through a lodge that was in the area she adds. But beware, disquisitions on totalitarianism will also have their place in this institution of iron discipline.
We wanted to make a metaphor about how difficult it is to be free in the world in which we live, hyperbolizing the situation and denouncing how they oppress the lives of these boys with a moral excuse says Belloso about the rebellion or the alleged bad behavior that he has led these kids to Las Cumbres. In fact, to get into the role we told the actors to internalize that they were in a military dictatorship says the screenwriter. And the director Denis Rovira agrees with him saying It is a cry for freedom of expression and speaks of young people who do not want to be numbers or people in uniform, throwing questions at the viewer as if this is the better way to reinsert them. That is the story will have horror and gender components, which what they do is elevate it to another level.
Between mystery and mystery, sparks will also jump between the young protagonists. In this regard, Rovira ensures that the issue of sex has been dealt with openly. And Belloso abounds in the question saying. We have sought that there was a lot of reality both in the characters and in the relationships and not to morally judge any type of behavior from the narration. In that sense, I think that it reflects how the world is today. Finally, Belloso acknowledges that they have taken advantage of the trump card of nostalgia, for example, with cameos by the aforementioned Blanca Suarez and Yon Gonzalez. Apart from the influencer Dulceida. Or the Elite actress Mina El Hammani, who is part of the adult cast along with Natalia Dicentra (Solas) Ramiro Blas (Vis a vis), Alberto Amarilla (Sea inside), or Joel Bosque Land of Wolves.
We know that they are going to compare us with the original, and that is a slab, but then you have the advantage that many people are going to sit down and see it precisely because of that. That is the challenge and we have assumed it, playing to make winks and small tributes the screenwriter finishes.
