Screenwriter Laura Sarmiento had doubts when the suggestion came to her: to make a fictional series about the city police case. In May 2017, a body was found in the trunk of a burned-out car. For the crime against someone who turned out to be a city watchman, two other local agents were arrested and later convicted: his partner and another man. Behind this media case there was a love triangle, lies, manipulation, complaints and even other deaths under strange circumstances. “It is a story so powerful that it intoxicates you. I wondered why, and that was what drew me to her. Why do seemingly normal people who don’t feel bad and who have other options decide to do something like this? “Apart from the twists and turns through which the story moves, this conflict between normality and such an extreme decision is very attractive for a narrator,” Sarmiento continues.
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She, who is also responsible for the script of series such as Intimidad, Matadero or Crematorio, is the creator of El cuerpo en llamas, the eight-part series that premieres on Netflix this Friday and in which Úrsula Corberó and Quim Gutiérrez Rosa Peral and Albert zum Bring to life López, the two condemned. She and Pedro Rodríguez, played by José Manuel Poga, are the only characters in this story who keep their real names on screen. Both Laura Sarmiento and the director and producer Jorge Torregrossa explain that their series is based on the truth of justice and that they had no intention of answering questions that have not yet been answered. “Otherwise there were no limits. But we were respectful and aware that there are real people and that this couple ruined their lives and those of many people around them,” explains Torregrossa. “I felt free, but at the same time I had this gift. There are people who have suffered and continue to suffer. If it had been a completely fabricated case, I probably would have gotten too carried away on certain issues, but here I felt morally incompetent,” the screenwriter adds.
The screenwriter Laura Sarmiento and the director Jorge Torregrossa, responsible for the series “The Burning Body”, this Wednesday in Madrid. Olmo Calvo
The two timelines between which the story jumps follow, on the one hand, the characters’ journey to the crime scene and, on the other hand, the investigation after the body was found. In both cases, Rosa Peral’s character acts as a centrifugal force from which the entire plot emanates. Perhaps that’s why the real Rosa Peral, who is in prison serving a 25-year sentence for murder (Albert López is sentenced to 20 years in prison), filed a motion for precautionary measures last week to try to cripple the series’ premiere : He intended this to be a first step towards a lawsuit for possible violation of his honor and privacy. This Tuesday, the judge rejected the request.
Sarmiento and Torregrossa were surprised by the request, all the more so since Peral herself took part in the documentary “The Tapes of Rosa Peral” that Netflix is also premiering this Friday, a production that has nothing to do with fiction and in which their statement to see is. Neither the creator nor the director have seen the documentary yet, but they knew of its existence, as Torregrossa says: “When we were filming, we had a meeting with Netflix one day and I said, ‘Haven’t you thought about doing it.’ ?’” “A documentary that will be shown later?” of the series?” There are things that we had to leave out or that weren’t useful in our fiction. And the people at Netflix laughed and said, “It’s already underway.”
Úrsula Corberó and Quim Gutiérrez, in the first episode of “The Body on Fire”. NIL VENTURA/NETFLIX
The most obvious option
For those responsible for “The Burning Body”, choosing Úrsula Corberó as the protagonist was the obvious and earliest choice. “She is a star of the house (Netflix), she is Catalan, she is the same age, she has many qualities of sensuality, attractiveness… that Rosa Peral is also said to have,” says Torregrossa. However, due to the doubts that the role raised, it took the actress a while to decide and she had several meetings with her to explain how the case and the character would be approached. Her doubts led her to consider other names for the role of Peral, but Corberó eventually agreed. As for Quim Gutiérrez, they had seen him as another main character, not Albert. “But Úrsula told us that they knew each other and that they had good chemistry and that he might play Albert. He has characteristics that are also suitable for the figure. We felt, and he felt too, that we were giving him a role that wouldn’t normally be given to him. He brought a lot of things to the character. Albert is a nice guy who is popular and funny, although he also has his own personal hell. Quim is able to teach one thing and the other,” explains the director.
Úrsula Corberó, in a moment from “The Body on Fire”.SOPHIE KOHELER/NETFLIX
The series presented some challenges for both the screenwriter and the director, as they explained to EL PAÍS this Wednesday in a hotel in Madrid. Laura Sarmiento emphasizes the complexity of understanding the characters. “It’s a task of forensic psychology, you have to uncover very precise motives for every decision, and you also have to bet, make your own decisions.” Because everything has to be put together. Reality is not so logical, but fiction must be, everything must arise from causes. Establishing this causality in a case with decisions so difficult to understand is complicated. Reality can be absurd and chaotic, fiction cannot,” explains the creator. She is grateful that the case had some gaps that could not be answered. “Because we have fictionalized, these gaps allow you to create something that is consistent with what you are creating.”
Quim Gutiérrez, in the fifth episode of the series.SOPHIE KOHELER/NETFLIX
For his part, Jorge Torregrossa highlights the difficulty of filming the process, which includes the last two episodes of the series. “I think it’s the most difficult thing I’ve ridden in my career. In reality there were 26 days of negotiations. We used a concept that was the judgment salad. We exploded the linear, logical temporality of the process to make it cinematic. They say directing a film is like directing an orchestra, and that’s the closest thing to directing an orchestra, having a tempo, a rhythm, thinking about when to stop, when to go fast, not repeating yourself and that “Using the image to tell the story, planning where to place the camera…” he elaborates. His idea was also the resource that allowed the characters themselves to read the messages exchanged while looking directly into the camera. “The messages were an integral part of the story, many are part of the sentence, and they serve very different functions, sometimes about love, sometimes about heartbreak, sometimes they lie… That seemed to me to be the most powerful.” Kind, to tell them, to create a special language in which you had the opportunity to see the character in that moment and feel what he wants to convey with a close-up of this cast. It’s a window into his soul and his head,” adds Torregrossa.
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