23/02/2021 - Coming on the heels of various films supported by the streaming platform, Doctor Portuondo, directed by Carlo Padial, will be the first series to bear the “Filmin original” hallmark

Director Carlo Padial and actors Jorge Perugorría and Nacho Sánchez, who will be working together on Doctor Portuondo

It’s clear that Filmin is enjoying a period of great success at the moment, as proven by the fact that it is making the transition from being a website for legally watching European arthouse and independent films, known only to film buffs, to now being all the rage. In addition, owing to the pandemic, many festivals have opted to organise their activities online using this VoD platform, which means its traffic skyrocketed over the course of 2020. While it already announced just a few months ago that the Nazca Capital and Seaya Ventures investment funds were coming on board to become some of its shareholders (replacing Metropolitan Filmexport and Vértigo Films), in order to strengthen and consolidate its position in Spain and Portugal and kick-start its international launch, it has now made public the fact that the shoot for its first original series will start in Barcelona on 8 March. This will be Doctor Portuondo, directed by Carlo Padial, and with Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría (The Winds of Lent [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Avila native Nacho Sánchez (Seventeen [+see also:
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interview: Daniel Sánchez Arévalo
film profile]) toplining the cast.

The series is based on Padial’s book of the same name, published in 2017, an entertaining autobiographical trip back in time to his consultations with the titular Caribbean doctor: a psychoanalyst who yells at his patients, swears by Freud and guzzles whisky. “We all need therapy because we’re unaware of ourselves. So we should just get up on that couch. This series is a unique opportunity to do that for a little while, albeit as spectators, by means of a fictional story that helps us to understand ourselves and the people we know, but always from a humorous angle,” declared the director. Padial (Barcelona, 1977) is one of the most original and unpredictable filmmakers on the Spanish film scene: he has helmed unclassifiable movies of the likes of Mi loco Erasmus (his debut from 2012), Taller Capuchoc, Algo muy gordo [+see also:
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film profile] and the documentary Vosotros sois mi película [+see also:
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film profile].

Meanwhile, as well as distributing films in theatres (right now it is exhibiting The Painter and the Thief [+see also:
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interview: Benjamin Ree
film profile], a Norwegian documentary directed by Benjamin Ree, in Spanish cinemas), Filmin has also produced – with varying degrees of involvement – movies such as Samantha Hudson, una historia de fe, sexo y electroqueer, a portrait of the titular Majorcan artist by Joan Porcel; the Spanish-French co-production Jean-François and the Meaning of Life [+see also:
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film profile] by Sergi Portabella; and Barcelona, nit d’hivern [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Dani de la Orden, among others.

For Juan Carlos Tous, the founder and CEO of Filmin, “The production of our first series confirms this company’s desire to evolve constantly, providing the audience with a differentiated and well-rounded offering. The first day of the shoot for Doctor Portuondo marks a new milestone for Filmin, which is coming of age as a platform.” Doctor Portuondo – a series comprising six episodes lasting 30 minutes each – is a Filmin production, produced in tandem with La Chica de la Curva. It will be aired on the website in October this year.

(Translated from Spanish)