The series ‘Sul‘, which will debut in September in RTP1, is considered by the director Ivo M. Ferreira as “a great film”, very Portuguese, “without wanting to be something else”, and already has interested international buyers.
Of the police type, with ten episodes, the series, which takes place in Lisbon in the midst of a financial crisis, was exhibited at the European Film Market (EFM) of the Berlin Film Festival and, according to its producer, Edgar Medina, interested in taking it to other countries.
“I think the reactions were very positive, it went very well, there is enthusiasm about the series. The internationalization process starts now and it will take a long time”, said the producer, co-author, and co-editor of “Sul”, stressing that “there is interest in buying it, without, however, advancing more data”.
Edgar Medina said the team reacted “naturally” to the invitation from the Berlinale because they knew they had “a good series with potential”.
“Having been a project that had already been here last year, in a section of co-productions, it obviously facilitates interest. But there is one clear difference: last year we had a project that was going to move forward, an argument and all preliminary work, now there a finished series that was seen and selected for this section, “stressed the producer.
Ivo M. Ferreira confessed to having paused in the montages of “Sul” to move to Berlin. “This year we came to say that this really exists, that these gentlemen can buy it for the world, we are really here to deliver”, he said.
The series, which the director always refers to as a film, is “much more than a police investigation”, he stressed, “these characters are the picture of the city and the country”.
“I always look at this as a great film, even with the team. Of course, it has serial peculiarities, each episode has to work autonomously, I do not refuse any of that, but I always think of the movie as a whole”, said Ivo M. Ferreira.
“It’s a Mediterranean ‘noir’ film, in Lisbon, and in the end, this scheme and this genre end up capturing the portrait of the city and the country, and that’s what brings you a special grace. internationalize, but that never wanted to be anything other than a film or a very Portuguese series”, said the director.
“I do not want it to look like an American series. It’s a very Portuguese series but in a good way. There is usually a very negative connotation with Portuguese cinema, which is absurd (…) This is a portrait of a country melancholic, in a crisis, eventually eternal, with very dynamic characters, who come from working districts of Xabregas to today’s bankers”, the director of films like ‘Letters of War‘ and ‘O Estrangeiro‘ described.
“Sul” was one of the projects that benefited from the new system of financial incentives for cinema and audiovisual, created by the government. A “great novelty” that helps Portuguese and Portuguese projects, said Edgar Medina, who confesses to having received “a significant amount” that he added to the financial montage of the project.
“We did a series that is a very genuine effort to bring a gender narrative, a black police officer, to the city we love, Lisbon, with its landscapes and its people, and at the same time speak of an era that was very expensive, the height of the financial crisis, which marked a very long time … And so, combining a narrative that has universal foundations, and that can be recognized anywhere in the world, we want it to be a way for us show and think about us”, concluded the producer of ” Sul“.
The Portuguese series includes, among others, Adriano Luz, Ivo Canelas, Margarida Vila-Nova, Jani Zhao and Afonso Pimentel. Edgar Medina, Rui Cardoso Martins and Guilherme Mendonça sign the argument.
