Miguel del Arco is one of Spain's most prestigious names in theatre. In addition to being an actor and screenwriter, he made his debut - after orchestrating several short films and series - in feature film directing seven years ago with The Furies [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film]. He is now working on creating and directing (alongside Rómulo Aguillaume) another series, Las noches de Tefía. The series was presented during the last edition of the Malaga Festival (Pantalla TV section), where he attended with his artistic team, including Patrick Criado, Israel Elejalde, Roberto Álamo, Carolina Yuste and Ana Wagener (seen in another film about homosexual struggle that opens in Spanish cinemas on 7 July, Te estoy amando locamente [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]).

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The series delves into the forced labour camps that the dictator Francisco Franco created in Spain to imprison "sodomites" during the 1960s and 1970s, under his own law of social dangerousness against "vagrants and thugs", which remained in force until years after his death. These places of abuse, mistreatment and marginalisation were in Badajoz, Huelva and the Canary Islands. Tefía is the name of the concentration camp "Colonia Agrícola Penitenciaria" (sic) located on the island of Fuerteventura where the main action of the series takes place, which starts with a spectacular choreographic number preluding high creativity, musicality and drama.

Las noches de Tefía shows the horrors of this abominable place, but also how those who ended up there managed to survive emotionally thanks to a self-defence tool, impossible for any tyrant to expropriate, called imagination. One of them, Charlie (played by Miquel Fernández), told his fellow captives of this cabaret - called Club Tindaya - where everyone could be free to pursue their personal passions and talents in singing, dancing and seduction.

Each chapter is broken up and alternates between black and white images portraying the brutality of this captivity between wire fences and another, in splendid colour, where the fantasies of freedom evolve of those imprisoned there due to being, according to the authorities of Franco's dictatorship, "an offence against morality". All this is reconstructed from flashback memories of Jorge Perugorría's character, one of the prisoners, now a businessman, with a family and a past that is calling out to be revealed.

It is true that this approach of two narrative levels - the real and the imagined - is nothing new (just remember Life is Beautiful, The Wizard of Oz or Kiss of the Spider Woman). However, the spectacular musical numbers, the delivery of the performers, the emotion conveyed and a high-end production make this series a dramatic entertainment that, in the midst of LGBTQI+ pride celebrations, airs a dark, half-hidden episode of our recent history, which should not be forgotten... to avoid it ever happening again. 

Las noches de Tefía is an original series of six one-hour episodes, produced by Buendía Estudios Canarias with the participation of Atresmedia Televisión, for Atresplayer Premium, which premieres on 25 June. The first two episodes will be screened in 73 cinemas across Spain on 22 June, distributed by Beta Fiction Spain.