Leticia Dolera: "Sexual offenders are not strangers, they are people we love."

BarcelonaLeticia Dolera (Barcelona, ​​​​1981) adds her second series as a creator, PubertyThe drama, which tells the story of a case of sexual abuse among minors within a human tower group, arrives on HBO Max on September 24, where it can be seen in the original Catalan version. In a few months, it will also be available on 3Cat, which participated in the production.

Why did you choose the world of human towers as the backdrop for the series?

— I wanted to frame the story within the realm of popular culture. It was a way to symbolically show the coexistence, and sometimes tension, between tradition and progress. I began to think about contexts of popular culture, which is also something very local, but also very universal, because every region has its own popular culture. I started thinking, and everything led me to Catalonia, because I'm Catalan, of course. One day I thought of an image of a castle, and it was crystal clear.

A castle can be very symbolic.

— Both metaphorically and visually, a castle embodies the soul and the most philosophical undertones of the series. The series deals with an intimate theme, but it also speaks to the collective and the power of the collective. And, in addition, we have all the symbolism that exists within the world of human towers, such as the pine cone, which represents the ethical and moral values of a society and must be well-built to reach higher. And to raise the log, for example, we must trust each other, because otherwise the log will fall. The castle shows us the power of the community and, at the same time, fragility, which is what happens to the characters. It's a strong community that builds castles, that is, it cares about valuing collective actions, but then a conflict like this [sexual abuse involving three minors] shakes all the families and the community itself. And they'll have to work on it to move forward.

In addition to creating the series, you play Julia, a feminist journalist and writer who will face various life contradictions. Does being a feminist always mean facing contradictions?

— Yes, I think feminism implies a critical and politicized view of society, connections, and relationships. Clearly, developing that critical view is what allows you to become aware of your contradictions. I also think that ideals help you navigate, that is, to know where you want to go. This doesn't mean that while you're moving, you're already perfect, because that's impossible. And I think fiction is precisely a very fertile ground in this sense, allowing us to reflect and show vulnerability, the complexity of what it means to be human and have human connections, that we're not robots. And this is what I also worked hard on with the series: humanizing all the characters, empathizing with all the characters. And yes, with Julia I wanted to show how a woman, when she's a feminist journalist, is also more things. It's not a political ideology: she's a mother, a daughter, a lover, a friend.

The series also deals extensively with the sexual education children receive, emphasizing the role of pornography. Are we still failing to provide children with the tools to understand sexuality?

— In the series, I wanted to portray a social reality today, which is how young people truly search for answers about a topic that affects them: sexuality. Sexuality affects us from a very young age, and denying it is denying reality. And puberty is a time of hormonal explosion; your body begins to change, and you become aware of how others view you. Since so many things happen to them, and since there's no sex education in high school, they look for answers elsewhere, and find what they find. In many cases, they turn to pornography, which is a major source of misogyny and violence. Developing the series and working with the kids, I've learned many things, but one that particularly moved me is the importance of having adult role models other than your parents. Because, in the end, there are topics that are very uncomfortable to discuss with parents, but it's good to have an adult nearby, be it an aunt or a cousin. And talking and working with them, I realized that at 13 or 14, which is a pivotal age, it's very interesting to approach a boy or girl and give them space and challenge the adult who is emerging within them. At this age, the child is still very present, but they begin to feel like an independent person from their parents, both in terms of personality and their thoughts and beliefs.

In addition to giving talks on abuse, consent, and power relations, did you have an intimacy coordinator? What do you think about the fact that some actors complain about these issues?

— I think that when it comes to minors, it's essential to coordinate privacy and also ensure respectful treatment by the director himself. Right now, the privacy coordinator is a very useful and necessary figure: it's not the Catholic Church coming to censor. It's an element of protection but also of creativity, of thinking about how we can film this to make it less uncomfortable, to make it easier. We shouldn't view privacy coordination as censorship, but as a tool for the directing department.

In the series, many of the female characters revisit their past sexual and romantic relationships and realize that perhaps they weren't always comfortable with the things they did. Do you think men also engage in this revisiting?

— I have many friends, both heterosexual and homosexual, who, in the wake of the feminist wave of 2018, have reviewed their relationships, histories, and intimate moments with women or men and thought, "Well, I wasn't careful here," or "I should have communicated better." I find this interesting because, for me, there are two areas: the crime itself, and another, more gray area that we should also talk about without entrenching ourselves. In the series, we don't just talk about puberty and how it will affect your adult life, but also about adult relationships, because there are still things about our sexuality that we haven't resolved. There are moments when, in the same situation, she puts herself in a complacent role, ignoring herself, and the other guy doesn't even consider it. This isn't a crime, but it does create wounds. And perhaps it does affect this woman's emotional self-esteem, and perhaps it also affects how the guy views his relationships with women in the future, how he'll take certain things for granted. I think there needs to be a paradigm shift that doesn't always involve "you're an aggressor, you're a criminal." There's a lot of abuse of power, but we also need to be able to talk about these gray areas where patriarchy operates, where power operates, but perhaps not so consciously or maliciously.

Are boys and girls still educated differently?

— We've tried to educate children differently, but the curriculum hasn't changed. Women are still underrepresented in textbooks, and for me, the ideal isn't for a teacher to come and say, "Come on, today we'll talk about women in literature." Once again, women are positioned as something other than that. The history of the feminist struggle, for example, should be part of what we tell about universal history. Children also see this, which is told to them as something external. On the other hand, there's the issue of cell phones, which also appears in the series. You wouldn't give drugs to a child, but you give them a cell phone with apps designed to cause addiction.

Digital natives are much more familiar with these devices than their parents.

— Yes, yes. Be careful, I don't want to blame parents, who are suffocated by a capitalist system where precariousness is becoming the norm. The issue is much more structural, and change doesn't come from individuality, but from the collective, and I wanted to highlight that in the series. In the case of adolescents, we need to be able to talk about why there's a generation that doesn't feel challenged by feminism and equality and even feels attacked. But, of course, if they also see generations of adults discussing these issues and sexual assault without any sensitivity... I feel we're living in a time of dehumanization and dissociation. I look for the headline, I look for the clickbait, the video that will go viral, but where is the sensitive reflection?

The end of Puberty It seeks precisely that deeper reflection by showing the restorative justice process for victims of abuse, which is not widely known.

I wanted to show other ways of addressing conflicts and resolving crimes. And I also wanted to highlight what the victim needs, because sometimes the victim might not just need a sentence; they need more. And I also think this is a more humanistic view of the judicial system. In fact, when I discovered this process existed, I changed my mind. Bible and the series' outline. I found it to be a very transformative tool. I wanted the series to have a feminist perspective, but also a humanist and luminous one. Fiction allows you to explore uncomfortable terrain while showing the lights, shadows, and gray areas, and within these gray areas, not losing humanity. Because, moreover, the aggressors aren't strangers; they're our friends, siblings, cousins, parents, children... They're people we love. Reflecting on the humanity of an aggressor doesn't mean you're overlooking the victim's pain.