The complex filming of the royal drama ‘Mediterráneo’

There are films that exceed their cinematic value since their humanity is above. One of them is Mediterranean, the new film by Marcel Barrena (Small world, 100 meters) what does it tell the birth of the initiative of Òscar Camps and his fellow lifeguards to go to Greece to try to rescue the emigrants that reached its shores. The cast is headed by a series of great Catalan actors such as Eduard Fernández, Anna Castillo, Sergi López or Àlex Monner, in addition to the contribution of Dani Rovira, also the protagonist of his latest film.

It all begins when Camps sees the world-shaking image of little Aylan, a deceased Syrian boy who was found on a beach. It upsets him so much inside that he decides to go there with his partner Gerard, who will later be joined by his own daughter and the accountant of his company. On Lesbos they will face opposition from both the local police and some neighbors, but they will also find good people, like the owner of a tavern, who will help them. It is a necessary film so that the whole world knows the heroism of this anonymous group that decided that it was necessary to start immediately. Without an ounce of sentimentality, only providing truth and commitment, Barrena manages to continuously thrill the viewer while denouncing this intolerable situation. The director himself, Marcel Barrena, explains the anecdotes that emerged during filming.

-The best possible advisor. “Òscar Camps advised us at all times and came with us to Lesbos. It was difficult for me to understand why the authorities would not let them save lives, he told me about geopolitical conflicts, he corrected the script … He contributed a lot of material for the film, both motorcycles and vests or boats are what they use in real life. He was fully involved & rdquor ;.

-What about fiction? “90 percent of the film is inspired by real events but we had to take small licenses to make it work better the mechanism and was more accessible to the audience. Everything that is seen actually happened, but sometimes not that timeline, for example, Camps’ daughter arrived later. The character of Rasha, the doctor looking for her daughter, drinks from many people in a similar situation, especially from a doctor we knew, but wanted to personify him in a strong woman”.

-From Mario to Sergi. “Nico Miguel, the character played by Sergi López is an Argentine super lifeguard who became very famous in his country after appearing in a press photograph rescuing a child and it looked like Jesus saving a little boy from the water. He was even named the fourth most influential Argentine of the year and it’s all a sex symbol. It was our contact with the sea, he corrected us on how to take motorcycles or save people, but he was not very happy that, on the screen, it was Sergi López. Jokingly commented why had Mario Casas not done it, he is in good shape, and Sergi laughed. The truth is that I did not want to include another lifeguard with the same profile as Gerard because they would cancel each other & rdquor ;.

-A water polo actor. “When I told my friends that Eduard was going to play Òscar Camps, they didn’t see him. They thought he was short and not very physical, but then I found out that He was runner-up of Spain in youth water polo and nothing like a professional. In the scenes at sea there are no doubles of Eduard and Dani, they are, but they had to learn how a lifeguard swims; for example, he cannot put his head under water because he loses his aim. Each trained with their real character, Eduard with Òscar and Dani with Gerard & rdquor ;.

-Refugee actors. “The best experience that I am going to have in my profession is having worked with immigrants, it is difficult for me to experience something that surpasses it. I was very clear that they had to be real refugees; the extras can be very good, but you can tell that they are extras. When dealing with such a sensitive issue, we couldn’t hire extras, but rather look for another formula. We managed to recruit a thousand Syrian refugees. We took a trip to Lesbos and the camp psychologist told us that it was a very commendable proposition, but having them could develop trauma for them and we had to think about how to do it. But then they all came, everyone wanted to be part of this and tell their story. During the filming, everything was prepared and they changed things for us, they told us how they swam, they wanted to contribute, they had that need. In the scene with the drug dealer and the girl who is crying, in the first shot I cut and jumped into the sea to see if she was okay, she looked like she had an anxiety attack and I believed it. When I stopped filming, she thought I was not doing well, but she was acting, she had a need to be there. In the end, I told her she was like Meryl Streep”.

-The cameos. “A lot of the real characters make brief appearances. In the scene where Eduard Fernández confronts and fights with the Coast Guard, who knock him down and he ends up on the ground, one of them is Òscar Camps. Most of the real lifeguards come out at the beginning when the protagonist asks for help from his team and, when Eduard enters the Proactiva ship, he meets two people whom he wishes Bon dia !, which are Gerard Canals and his daughter & rdquor; .

-A semi-digital beach. “The landscape of the beach with the boats and the Syrians is a real shot mixed with digital elements. I was very clear that I wanted to shoot it at the exact point on the coast of Lesbos but in the end we had to recreate it in a similar place in the vicinity & rdquor ;.

-Dani came up. “Eduard was riding the jet ski quite well, Dani not so much. At first it took them a bit but, when they were back, Dani was a little grown and gave himself a couple of hosts, one with the camera boat. It was a very tense shoot, in the sea, with a lot of nerves and hundreds of real refugees, all in the water & rdquor ;.

-Start over. & rdquor; The To Kyma tavern, which means “the waves”, already appeared in a documentary about the mission of the lifeguards in Greece and it was where they spent their months. I slept there for several weeks and we intended to shoot it all in the same places where it happened. We had everything closed. But, while we were in pre-production, there were a series of neo-Nazi attacks on the island, which targeted refugees. This situation meant that we could not film anything where planned, the refugees were in danger and, above all, the covid. We had to start from scratch, change the locations, but that they were identifiable with the real ones. The tavern was almost identical to the original, I respected the name, logo and other elements & rdquor ;.

-A shipwreck. “The event that can be seen at the end, in the macro-rescue scene, occurred because that day they put some 500 people in an old wooden boat, similar to the swallows in the port of Barcelona, in which only 50 could fit. He collapsed and Òscar said that he had vision as if a plane had crashed. It was the largest shipwreck in modern history and they were able to rescue 252 people, but it was never known how many they really were. Us we used a hundred refugees to shoot it and digitally duplicated vests and people”.

-The other field. “The Moria camp was also recreated because it was not feasible to shoot it there as there are inhumane conditions and we had to find another place on the island. The refugees who had been there They said it was the same as the real one. There was also a sad coincidence, since the day we were filming in our Moria the real Moria was burning, it was a brutal emotional shock. They said it was the Nazis & rdquor ;.

-And the ship? “In the first version of the script it was written that, after the shipwreck, a tourist appeared asking them how he could help and gave them the Open Arms ship. But we had too many elements, we were already in the third act and we did not want to load it with new concepts. The covid also played a role. The filming was intended to take nine and a half weeks and had to be reduced to six, so some scenes had to be removed & rdquor ;.

-To be continue? “I have not thought about shooting a second part, but it would be nice to tell that story and what happened afterwards, although that already Jordi Évole explained it very well in Astral. I have spent five years with these characters and I will never tire of them because history repeats itself. During these days, although it is not talked about so much, it keeps happening and people keep suffering”.

-Based on real characters. “All my films are based on real people, but it is not intentional. I first met Albert Casals and he moved me so emotionally that I shot the documentary with him Small world, that changed my vision of things. It worked very well and I was left empty when I could not find another story of this level that added something to me. Then Ramón Arroyo appeared, who inspired 100 meters, and I thought you could teach me many things. When I discovered Òscar’s story, I saw right away that a movie had to be made. It’s funny because my favorite films are those of Spielberg, but if I have to do them myself, I have to spend four years with my head on the guillotine and take so many risks, I prefer it to be for something that can contribute”.

– Timely postponement. “When the covid arrived I was devastated because we had to postpone filming, but that’s when Dani was detected cancer and, anyway, it couldn’t have been done. It took him six months to recover and, after that time, we were able to resume it. & Rdquor ;.

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-The original song. “We were thinking of a song for the movie and Dani told me to listen Mediterranean Nana, by Maria José Llergo, which was ideal and we thought about using it because I was ashamed to ask her to write a similar one. But it was she who asked us to let her compose another in the same vein and it moved me and the new song, The sea awaits you, I love & rdquor ;.