Intimacy, a Spanish series about sex video disclosure, on Netflix
Two scenes in the first five minutes mark the start of Privacy. The first is an aerial glide, showing a lifeless body floating in the sea. A voiceover says, “Don’t look at me that way. I didn’t expect this to be my end either. We all hide something deep inside ”.
In the second, a woman with a solid political background and a firm candidate for the new mayor of Bilbao (Spain) is publicly mocked when a video of her having sex on a deserted beach with a man who is not her husband is leaked.
Intimacy, Netflix series.
The Spanish series, created by Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento, consists of eight episodes lasting just over 40 minutes, with the cities of the Basque Country as natural settings and the postcards of Bilbao, which provide a frame for this story that goes from drama to thriller.
Two women with different lives
Throughout the entire series, directors and screenwriters have chosen to retrace the stories of two women who do not know each other and with different lives – one civil servant and the other worker – but with something in common: the violation of their privacy through diffusion. of videos on social networks.
Intimacy, Netflix series.
Fernández and Sarmiento choose to tell the story through short flashbacks of the protagonists, who will gradually reveal the fabric of the company where the worker worked and the miseries of power in Bilbao. And the internal struggle of politics and the victim’s sister, which oscillates between reporting a crime and seeking justice or leaving things as they are.
“Should I report? It’s fair and exemplary, but I just want to move on and not let my life be destroyed, ”says the protagonist, played by Itziar Ituño (“ The Paper House ”). “Accept everything you lose as right,” his father tells him.
Intimacy, Netflix series.
good prominent men
The highlights of the series are those that show the historical and ingrained mechanisms intended to blame the victim; the speech that floats, both from businessmen and officials and from relatives, has the same purpose: to instill fear, shame and guilt. And the iron decision of the protagonists to confront and question the status quo.
During the episodes, that spirit loses strength due to ramblings. The script does not only develop the two stories mentioned.
Furthermore, he sees fit to deploy others to address issues such as homophobia, assisted reproduction for lesbian couples and even prostitution in the city. Filmmakers also choose to open new windows – with new stories – ten minutes from the end of a series, which sometimes becomes a futile effort.
Despite this, the flaws don’t end up overshadowing what “Intimacy” built. The protagonists are convincing and the technical workmanship impeccable, with impressive landscapes of the Basque Country. In his scenes the decision of the protagonists to drop the masks once and for all flies. And the series ends up being a message of sisterhood in the face of sexist violence.
File
Privacy
Qualification: Good.
Genre: Drama. Protagonists: Itziar Ituño, Verónica Echegui and Emma Suárez. Creators: Veronica Fernandez and Laura Sarmiento. Problem: Netflix. Duration: eight 40-minute episodes.
Just because?
It addresses a current and under-reported issue: the disclosure of sex videos and the re-legitimization of those affected.
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Diego Jemio
Source: Clarin