Filming begins on 'Ravalear', the new series set in the Raval region.

BarcelonaAfter the award-winning Second prize, Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez team up again in a series that will premiere on Max and later on the 3Cat platform. It is about Ravalear, a thriller A realistic film that has already begun filming in Barcelona's Raval district, created by Rodríguez and directed by both filmmakers. The creative duo has won the Gaudí Award for Best Director and three Goya Awards for Second prize, a film about the band Los Planetas.

Ravalear, which will consist of six 45-minute episodes, is fictional but based on real events, as Rodríguez has taken his own family history as inspiration. Real estate speculation, immigration, and generational changes come together in this story, whose main setting is a long-standing restaurant in the Raval district, Can Moscas, which after 100 years in operation and three generations is in danger of disappearing. Although it is a meeting place for artists, businessmen, and politicians, the establishment is under threat of being bought by an investment fund. After initial discouragement, the family decides to stand up to try to preserve the restaurant, even if it means crossing red lines.

A series about the hidden face of Barcelona

Pol Rodríguez's family owned Can Lluís, an iconic Raval establishment that closed in 2021 after the pandemic. Manolo Vázquez Montalbán, Juan Manuel Serrat, José Saramago, and Rafael Alberti, among others, passed through the restaurant. The creator assures that the series addresses a very Barcelona issue that, in turn, can be extrapolated to other cities around the world. "Having grown up in the world of cinema and having experienced the personal story of our family restaurant makes me want to explain to the world what is happening in Barcelona, and in many cities around the world, in the only way I know how: through the camera. This is my therapy," explains Rodríguez, who emphasizes that his intention is to show the hidden side of the city. He adds that his intention is to ensure that the series does not get caught up in drama. "I want to explain this social conflict through a thriller Full of suspense, where the tension increases, little by little, until the protagonists are suffocated. A suffocation that will force them to react and strike back."

The background of the Can Lluís restaurant

Isaki Lacuesta, who met Rodríguez at the family restaurant, recalls how the closure of Can Lluís due to a fund that bought the entire building was a blow to the neighborhood and to the restaurant's regular customers. "It was on the news. Nothing else happened. It wasn't a one-off event: the same process is happening in cities all over the world. That's why I was thrilled that Pol reacted by writing this." thriller"A plot about a family fighting for survival, a plot about greed, the law of the strongest, and how the weak can become corrupted by not being crushed, fighting the vultures with their own weapons," he says. For Lacuesta, Rodríguez's return to the Raval has a touch of "poetic justice." Enric Auquer, Maria Rodriguez Soto, Quim Ávila, Sergi López, Francesc Orella and Lluïsa Castell, among others. Apart from Rodríguez and Lacuesta, Ravalear It features the participation of screenwriters such as Isa Campo and Edu Sola, and documentary filmmaker Justin Webster (Death in León, The pioneer), who signs the script together with the creator of the series.