Actor Luis Tosar presents this new production, based on real events, which focuses on the drama of emigration.
The South International Series Festival has started its first edition with the absolute premiere of the series
The Law of the Sea
a production of Studio60, RTVE and À Punt Mèdia, directed by Alberto Ruiz Rojo and starring actors such as Luis Tosar and Blanca Portillo.
The presentation of the series in Cadiz was attended by Luis Tosar himself and Alberto Ruiz Rojo; Tatiana Rodríguez, scriptwriter; Flipy, producer; José Pastor, director of contents of RTVE and Alfred Costa, director of À Punt radiotelevisión Valenciana. Also present were part of the team of actors and actresses of the series, such as Eva Marciel, Alex Monner, Ramón Rodenas, Alfonso Lara, Lamine Thior and Paula Muñoz.
The series is based on true events and tells the story of José Durá “Pepe” and nine other crew members of the fishing vessel José Durá “Pepe”, and nine other crew members of the fishing vessel
Francisco and Catalina
who, on July 14, 2006, decided to take 51 Eritrean immigrants stranded ten miles off Malta onto a boat.
“I would like to think that fiction always serves to change reality, at least some awareness,” said Luis Tosar, who in the series gets into the skin of the ship’s skipper. “Pepe is a character from another era, a guy completely committed to his morals. He is a person who has such clear moral principles that he attracts attention”.
At her side, screenwriter Tatiana Rodríguez revealed the main purpose of the project: “We wanted to take this story very far and fiction has allowed us to get into all aspects of the plot. The biggest challenge was not to be Manichean or judgmental, to understand all the options. On that boat, everyone was rescued”.
Regarding the difficulties of the shooting, which took place in natural settings in Madrid, Alicante, Ciudad de la Luz and Santa Pola, and included some complicated sessions at sea, director Alberto Ruiz Rojo said: “We opted for the riskiest option, shooting at sea for 18 days,” he said, convinced that the end result “is a very emotional story but without falling into sentimentality.
Also taking part in the press conference were José Pastor, director of Contents of RTVE, director of Contents of RTVE, for whom La ley del mar “is a great story that in fiction reaches more. It is very easy to empathize with the characters and poses a certain exoticism, it is difficult to see filming at sea. Stories based on real events create a lot of expectation, people are going to find it hard to believe that this story is real”, while Alfred Costa, director of Á Punt Radio Televisión Valenciana, does not hesitate to define this production as “a series that has the worst of human values and decision making”.
South International Series Festival is a private initiative sponsored by the Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte de la Junta de Andalucía, co-financed with European funds, Ayuntamiento de Cádiz, Diputación de Cádiz, and the participation of Mediaset España as main media sponsor. Also collaborating in this first edition are Movistar Plus+, Spain Film Commission, Fundación SGAE, Fundación Bancaria Unicaja and Canal Sur.
