When the crew of the fishing boat Francisco and Catalina left Santa Pola (Alicante), they could not have imagined that a few days later they would be holding Europe's diplomacy and immigration policies in check. On July 14, 2006, a few miles off the coast of Malta, a member of the boat's crew spotted a boat with 51 immigrants asking for help, including a two-year-old girl and a pregnant woman. The captain of the ship, Pepe Durá, did not hesitate and took these people on board. As they tried to reach Malta's coast to disembark, a complicated bureaucratic process began, with more than 60 people living together for days in a boat equipped to accommodate a dozen crew members.
Years later, Enrique Domingo, Flipy, saw Malta Radio's documentary about the fishing boat's odyssey, with testimonies from inside the boat and videos recorded by the fishermen themselves. “I saw that there was a story with some values and a problem that is still valid,” he explains over the phone. And he decided to start a fictional production to tell it. “It was an opportunity to tell the edges of this story, focusing not only on the relationship between the immigrants and the fishermen, but also on how the women and relatives in Santa Pola experienced it, who were the ones who made the public mobilized opinion and managed to change it. “It is transformed into international news and also includes a less seen part, namely politics,” explains the producer.
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This is how the three-part mini-series La ley del mar was born, which La 1 will broadcast in full this Sunday from 10 p.m. (it will also be available on RTVE Play) and which the Valencian channel À Punt programmed earlier this week. become a success. : The audience was close to that of the year-end bells and the broadcast of the Fallas on the regional channel.
Luis Tosar plays Pepe Durá, the captain of the fishing boat. Both he and his wife Pepi Irles collaborated on the fiction, telling screenwriters Tatiana Rodríguez and Víctor Pedreira their experiences and explaining what working at sea is like. Pepe's fight from the boat is mirrored by that of the Spanish ambassador to Malta, played by Blanca Portillo. The migration drama shown in the series is complemented by a political or diplomatic thriller plot, the struggle in the offices so that both migrants and fishermen can reach the port. “The two fight against the system and at the same time against each other because each has a style, one from the sea and the other from the offices,” describes the series director, Alberto Ruiz Rojo.
Director Alberto Ruiz Rojo, at one point during the filming of “La ley del mar” with Blanca Portillo (both seated), in a picture provided by the production company.
“The Law of the Sea” was a challenge for both the producers and the director. They had seven weeks to film the three 50-minute episodes, and 18 of those days were set aside for filming on the ship. They considered several alternatives, from shooting it in a water tank to shooting it chromatically at the harbor so it wouldn't be noticed. But despite many attempts to dissuade them, they decided to film these 18 days at sea. “They told us that we wouldn't even get a few minutes a day, that we would have problems with the light, that people would get dizzy… You can't imagine how many plans B, C and D we had for that In case that didn’t work,” Flipy remembers. But everything was better than expected.
They found a suitable ship in Almería and its crew also helped the actors get around the ship and even taught them the seafaring slang, which they incorporated into the series. Each day of filming started very early as it required a lot of navigation, changing locations depending on lighting conditions and a lot of planning. “The boat was 25 meters long full of things. We had to learn how to handle the ship because in every shot you have to move everyone, move the ship… It wasn't a normal shoot. But it added extra value to the story because there are no cheats. What the hell could have been was a very positive thing. We were filled with reality,” says Alberto Ruiz Rojo.
An image from the series “The Law of the Sea”, provided by the production company.
The series also shows the drama of immigration in the first person perspective. “We always talk about numbers: this many immigrants died in a boat, this many arrived. In fact, they are given numbers when they get on the police boat. We wanted to tell people that this number has a first and last name and that it has a family and reasons and dreams and many other things behind it. “They start out as a number and by the end you know Barack, why he’s there, why they have those scars and why they jumped on board in desperation,” Flipy explains. “It's a story with soul, it has heart. This has happened to me twice in my career and this is one. It is characterized by its simplicity, it has no pretensions, moralism or sentimentality. It is life itself,” adds Ruiz Rojo.
Flipy says that when they asked Pepe Durá why he did that, he replied: “Because it had to be done.” Because the other option would be that they die.” Since July 14, 2006, the Durá family has been with their boat One hundred immigrants rescued. In 2006 there were 51 people. In 2007 there were 26 again. And in 2018 there were 12. And they would do it again: They are only subject to maritime law.
The actor Luis Tosar, the director Alberto Ruiz Rojo and the fisherman Pepe Durá during the filming of the series in a picture by Ruiz Rojo.Marina Anaya
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