At first it was a car crashing into a jewelry store. And then they looted it in three minutes. This is how the film started and triumphed in 2020 up to the skyin which the actor Miguel Herran (“Río” from Money Heist) was the leader of a gang of “aluniceros”this modus operandi in the black market for stolen goods in Madrid.
Last Friday came to Netflix the sequel (in episodic mode), Up to the sky: the series.
Action, thriller, seduction, betrayal, dark cops and juvenile deaths. And some young people from the suburbs who get rich by crashing cars into jewelry stores (in shop windows or shop windows, so “aluniceros”appearing in the Royal Spanish Academy).
And looting them before the police fall. not worth it ruin what happened to Miguel Herrán in the film, though it is not in Up to Heaven: The Series. But almost everyone else comes back.
The movie was a huge hit and is also on Netflix. There they seduce Miguel Herrán (as Ángel, a wilder “Río”), Carolina Yuste (the dangerous brunette Estrella) and Asia Ortega (his beautiful and good wife). With one clarification: the latter is the daughter of the mafia boss of this black market of stolen objects, Rogelio (the expert Luis Tosar).
The game of (new) roles
In the series, Asia Ortega comes to prominence as the leader of the Aluniceros.
AND not only for this the series is much better. The film failed to balance its Madrid-Ibiza sequences with the rushed romantic drama of its tense characters. Halfway through it got a bit repetitive. Asia Ortega moments gave them two-hour air, but she was not the central character. Until now.
this new fiction balance drama, romance, crime, and high-octane action. Consists of eight 40-minute episodes through Madrid, other parts of Spain and even Paristo develop storylines and subplots and learn more about the band aluniceros and to the competing forces in the black market for stolen items. And the legal ones, no less obscure.
Director Daniel Calparsoro and screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría kept the rest of the cast and added actor Álvaro Rico (curvaceous and refined Polo, one of the student-villains of the Elite series) as Fernán: he represents a love interest for Sole (Asia Ortega), and the new co-equiper of the car theft, replacing the Angel of Miguel Herran.
Up to the sky: the series It has numerous illustrious names in Spanish cinema and series. One that stands out is Fernando Caio: who was the insufferable Colonel Luis Tamayo of The robbery of money now he has the role of Duque, the honest and obsessed cop. Come back Patricia Vico like corrupt lawyer Mercedes (a bit in the manner of Better call Saul). The best adviser on how to launder money after the explosion of shop windows in Madrid.
But the central axis is in the ambitious plans, at full speed, of the band of aluniceros. Also in the power games between the characters of Álvaro Rico and Asia Ortega, this great 27-year-old actress and dancer on the rise after starring in the series The college: Las Cumbresterrifying and twisted.
The plot continues by betting on the collective game
The attraction of this fiction is the group. The codes between Sole, Fernán and their tracks: the influencer Alan “The Sheik’s Daughter” Greetings, like Rosa, and the rappers Ajax Pedrosa like motorcycles, Selmuni dollar such as Gypsy e jarfaiter like Tuna. And, above all, the great Tosar as Rogelio: the Godfather of all quinquis or mercheros, in Spanish slang.
Anyone who has seen the 2020 film knows what Sole’s father is capable of, managing influences or giving orders to a certain policeman-killer (actor Tomás del Estal, 56 years old). Narco-style good, the series expands the other side of Rogelio’s familiar image and the love for his daughter Sole, now without her Angel.
How will Rogelio take that Sole tries to lead the company and the band? Will there be a dual power crisis? “Angel, please don’t let him see her cry”Rogelio said in the film to the character of Miguel Herrán. “Oh, and stay away from that bitch”added the leader of the trafficking and sale of stolen goods from Madrid. “And no, Ángel, I’m not referring to your lover Estrella, but to your corrupt lawyer”.
again, better not ruin what happened inside up to the sky with all of them. But now you see the consequences. Another point in favor of the brand new Netflix fiction is that of the races before each robbery. Offenders put on their balaclavas, cross the highways and streets of Madrid and they crash into jewelers as if they were immortal.
Thick electronic and urban beats play in the background. AS, the sound and the cameras make every scene magnetic. The clock is ticking and It’s just three minutes to rob and run away from companies. Then we will see the other chain of business: the circulation and valorisation of jewels and objects on the black market.
The series has a life of its own.
But it is not essential to have seen the film: the series captures as its own universe and the nuances of the protagonist, Asia Ortega, go better with the secrets and deceptions that arise between the different factions. Not only in Madrid: the series grows on an international scale.
This band won’t have the charisma of La casa de papel, but it has another plus: is inspired by a real case. The director Daniel Calparsoro was captured in 2013 by the documentary made by the journalist Manuel Marlasca, on the aluniceros in Madrid, for the television program Equipo de investigación.
What fascinated the director? “The organization of the gangs and the mode of robbery – he said – are excellent for leading to fiction”. We’ll have to see the local impact the series gets. Of course, I hope that cars crashing into shops will continue to look like something incredible in Argentina.
Source: Clarin
