David Bermejo, creator of Entrevías, at South: “International success has not changed our way of thinking”.

The South International Series Festival has started its second day with the screening, at 9:00 a.m., of Nolly, a miniseries from the United Kingdom that promises to please the most serious moviegoers. Nolly (produced by Quay Street Productions, PBS Masterpiece in association with ITV Studios), is coming off a Canneseries Festival win and is directed by Peter Hoar, Emmy-nominated for his direction of The last of us.

The miniseries, created by Russell T. Davies – responsible for such titles as It’s a sin and Years and Years – explores the rise and fall of Noele Gordon, an actress and presenter who became one of the most famous women in the UK, played by Helena Bonham-Carter.

Meanwhile, the team of the popular Mediaset series Entrevías presented its third season at South. “It is a series about prejudice. In this new season, we also talk about forgiveness. The characters begin to get to know each other, and knowledge leads to forgiveness,” announced David Bermejo, creator, screenwriter and executive producer.

Bermejo also stated that the first two seasons “exceeded all our expectations”, and that this third season “gives us the joy of finding ourselves as the family that we are, and also an enormous responsibility. The approach has been, from the beginning, to pull out all the stops. We had to preserve elements that were already there, but also go further.

The new episodes describe how the family of Tirso (José Coronado), closely involved with Maica (Natalia Dicenta), will be caught in the crossfire between the gang members and the ex-military man. It also narrates the latent war, soon to be opened, between Commissioner Romero (Óscar Higares) and Ezequiel (Luis Zahera), among other absorbing subplots.

“We all know our characters better, and there is more action,” said Coronado, for whom the success of the first and second seasons is due to the fact that “we talk about human beings and families in all their forms, and that has allowed us to be number one in countries as different as Argentina and Nigeria. At the same time, he said he was “convinced that we are doing our bit to reflect on the world we live in and how we live. Television is occupying an even more important place than cinema in this aspect, because it is reaching everyone”.

According to Bermejo, “international success has not changed our way of thinking: the local works all over the world,” he stressed, while the rest of the cast has advanced how their characters will develop in the new season: Natalia Dicenta has referred to that Maica that “deep in her soul what she wants is to reunite with her children, whom she abandoned 20 years ago”; Higares, to that policeman tortured by “complexes and an inner rage that makes him want to get things his way and at all costs”.

Laura Ramos defends the role of Gladys, “a Latin woman, temperamental, mature, I see her almost as a heroine. Maica represents everything she is not, a prepared woman, and that makes her wobble a little. But she reminds Tirso that not everything is a fight, although he, like a good soldier, always returns to that place. And Nona Sobo explained how Irene’s character “suddenly becomes a mother, she doesn’t know how to manage it and matures by force. But she gives it her all and does her best. She has a very nice relationship with Tirso, he is old school and has a rather classist idea, until Maica arrives…”.

In addition, the team of La que se avecina has celebrated in South the 16th anniversary of the series (and the 20th since they started with Aquí no hay quien viva). As its co-director and screenwriter, Alberto Caballero, has said, it confirms what the tango says, that “20 years is nothing”. “In these 20 years the life of the team has evolved as much as the life of the characters.” In this special colloquium they have unraveled all the secrets involved in making an iconic comedy like this one. Laura Caballero, co-director and scriptwriter, wanted to emphasize what a wonderful experience it is for them to know that “the only day you can hear laughter in a hospital is the day La que se avecina is broadcast”, which drew applause from the large audience that followed the event from the auditorium of the Palacio de Congresos.

The actor Luis Merlo, a veteran of the series, has recognized the greatness of the character he had to assume and how surprised he was by the director’s choice of him. “Deep down we all laugh at the same things. Drama seems to be better seen within the profession. Making people cry is difficult, but without disparaging the genre, cutting an onion also makes you cry; however, I’ve never heard anyone say that peeling an onion kills them with laughter.”

The South honoree and star of the series, Petra Martínez, wanted to share with the public an idea that Laura Caballero conveyed on the first day of shooting: “If you have fun, the public has fun. And I’ve managed to have fun with this work,” she acknowledged. Returning to the intricacies involved in making comedy, Petra said that it is “very difficult, even more so than drama”, and also that “the writing, the verb, must be in the right place to make you laugh”.

The actor Raúl Peña, recent addition to this family that he has defined as “the best”, has continued in the same direction as his colleagues, praising the great work done by their directors: “They understand the rhythm of the comedy. It is an engineering, but Laura and Alberto achieve it perfectly”.

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.