Pitchbox Interview: co-creator Sergio Barrejón talks to us about “Burn Barcelona.”

A Madrid TV Pitchbox 2017 Special Mention

We talked to Sergio Barrejón, co-screenwriter, together with David Victori, of the fiction series project “Burn Barcelona”, based on the real-life story of Miquel Serra i Pàmies, Advisor to the Catalan government during the Spanish Civil War, who, after discovering Stalin’s plans of blowing up Barcelona to stop fascists from conquering it by killing hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants, puts his life in danger to stop the catastrophe from happening.

Brief Synopsis:

January 1939. Days before the revels enter Barcelona, the Republican government believes the war has been lost. From Moscow, the International Communist orders to devastate the city: destroy all lines of communication, energy, water or transportation supplies, so that nothing is left for the enemy. Miquel Serra, member of the PSUC (Catalan social communist party) and advisor to the Generalitat (Catalan government), is responsible for implementing that order. But Miquel, putting his life on the line and in alliance with anonymous heroes, decides to sabotage those plans and safeguard the city.

FMH: We’d like to know a bit more about your trajectory, why did you choose this profession? Where did you study? Where did you start your career?

S.B: I studied Information Sciences at Madrid’s Complutense University, mainly because I wasn’t admitted to Psychology or Sociology, which were my first options. They did well though: I don’t think I would’ve finished any of those degrees. In fact, I even didn’t finish Information Sciences. I also didn’t finish Theatre directing, which is what I pursued after abandoning Complutense. In the end, I quit everything and started working in TV.

FMH: What other stuff have you worked on? Can you talk to us or show us your most noteworthy work up until now?

S.B: I started working as producer of music shows on 40TV, a music channel. I was never enthused by it, but I had to get my bread and butter. With what I earned I shot my first shorts. Plus, they used to let me use the station’s facilities and equipment to shoot and edit.

I haven’t done anything of great relevance, truly. If I’d have to stand out something, I guess it would be the short film Éramos pocos (We were few), which I wrote together with director Borja Cobeaga, which was nominated for an Oscar. Then they nominated a short I directed for a Goya, El Encargado (The Manager). In TV I suppose the most notable thing I’ve done is Amar en tiempos revueltos (Love in difficult times) and La catedral del mar (Cathedral of the Sea). In both, I was a screenwriter working under Rodolf Sirera.

FMH: Talk to us about the project Burn Barcelona. How did you come about with the story? What is it about?

S.B: Burn Barcelona tells the true story of Miquel Serra i Pàmies, advisor to the Catalan government who, in the last stages of the Spanish Civil War, when Barcelona was about to fall in the hands of fascists, he discovered Stalin’s plan to blow up the city to avoid it from falling into Franco’s hands. Serra i Pàmies, conscious that Stalin’s plan implied the death of hundreds of innocent people, offered himself to coordinate the plan, with the secret intention of boycotting it stalling, trusting that fascist would arrive before his plan is discovered.

The project is by producer M.A Faura and director David Victori, and its the adaptation of the homonymous novel by Guillem Martí, a descendant of Serra i Pàmies. Faura and Victori proposed me to write a script, together with Victori, and we signed a deal the summer of 2015. That moment we were thinking of making a feature film, it hadn’t been yet transformed into a series.

FMH: Seems like a fascinating story about a character history seems to have forgotten or buried. How was the writing process of a project like this one?

S.B: The great challenge was to pinpoint which course of action had Serra i Pàmies taken to deceive soviet agents, who were supervising his job. Serra i Pàmies barely left any evidence of what he did during that week, to con the Soviets. It’s understandable: after the war, he was captured in Paris and judged in Moscow for high treason. Though in the end he was absolved, and after a long journey, he exiled himself to Mexico, because he probably didn’t feel safe here and considered sensible not to boast about his actions. He probably didn’t want to have a Soviet agent get him, ice ax in hand, as it happened to Trotsky.

Summarizing, we know how the story started and we know how it ended, because, surely, the destruction of Barcelona never happened, but everything in between is pure speculation. The novel opts for developing an intricate love triangle, which Faura, Victori and I found wouldn’t work well on the screen, so, I had to come up all that intermediate part, which we don’t have any historical evidence of left.

I took the decision of focusing on the more war aspects of the story, as they seemed more coherent with the real character than presenting an invented romantic plot. I had to invent a story anyways, and as my character was a sort of David against Goliath, I had to focus on his strategy, his limited resources, and how he’d win the giant. And I can’t say more without getting into spoiler territory.

FMH: How long have you been working on this project?

S.B: We started meeting to talk about the project in August 2015 and I gave a final draft in May 2017. Victori and I agreed that, as we lived far away from each other, it would be complicated to get together whenever we wanted, we’d start by getting a synopsis we both agreed upon and then I’d write on my own the first and second version of the script. From then on, the project would fall into his hands. As he was going to direct it anyways, so, he’d have to manage with any changes that should be applied due to production, we thought it more agile to focus my work in designing and structuring the story from the beginning, and let him pilot solo in the last phase of this process.

FMH: Where does the project stand now? What does it need to further be developed?

S.B: It’s been a while since I had news of the project, so I couldn’t say. I suppose Faura or Victori could answer this question better than me.

FMH: What other themes do you want to explore with this project?

S.B: On the one hand, to let people know about some of the most fascinating events that happened during the Spanish Civil War. On the other hand, to show the, also fascinating, determination of Serra i Pàmies of trying to avoid the catastrophe and massacre of innocent people, though that might mean risking his life and honor.

FMH: What would you stand out most in the project?

S.B: It is an epic vision of the Civil War which stays away from clichés topics and focuses on the adventure of an anonymous hero, in a world of corruption, cowardice and misery, risking his life, in a battle where no one dares to fight, and whose only reward is to know that he has done the right thing.

FMH: Had you tried to shop it around before getting to know us at Filmarket Hub? How was the experience?

S.B: That is not the case, as the project was commissioned to me.

QUICK QUESTIONNAIRE

These types of questions are dreadful. I’ll limit myself to Spanish film, to make it easier, nevertheless, I still have a hard time making lists.

Three favorite screenwriters

• Rafael Azcona
• Horacio Valcárcel
• Nacho Vigalondo

Three favorite directors:

• Luís Berlanga
• Alberto Rodríguez
• Icíar Bollaín

Three favorite films:

• La Vaquilla (Berlanga, 1985)
• Los cronocrímenes (Vigalondo, 2007)
• El crack (Garci, 1981)