"You are happy?". That is the first message that a group of young people receive in the new Netflix series welcome to eden (premiere May 6). A group of young people today. As hooked on social networks as dissatisfied with their real lives. The sender of these messages is the mysterious foundation Eden that promises to at least make them very happy for one night, in an exclusive party in a paradisiacal and secret island.
They must leave without saying anything to anyone. It will be a round trip, a few hours in paradise sponsored by a new alleged energy drink. Zoa (Amaia Aberasturi, The age of anger), the first protagonist of the ensemble cast of the series, is one of the chosen ones. Only she breaks the rules and sneaks her best friend into the party.
Arrival on the island.
The date is a bit gloomy, in an abandoned warehouse in Barcelona, but on the bus to the catamaran that will take them to the island, the party is already beginning. The arrival in that promised paradise is everything they expected: a spectacular beach. A crazy night, free drink, music... The trip of their lives. So much travel hits them in the head that the next morning five of the chosen kids have stayed on land, they are the super chosen by this Eden Foundation directed by Astrid (Amaia Salamanca) and Erik (William Pfening) inside that mysterious island. There begins an endless number of plot twists and characters that we can talk about little else.
We focus, therefore, on the main character: the island. Where is it? “The good thing about this secret island is that being a fictional island, which does not exist, between producers, directors and screenwriters they have been able to imagine it and create it from scratch”, Explain Martí Marcos, head of locations for Welcome to Eden. “The most interesting thing about this project is have been able to search and choose locations of places very different in their appearance and style, but that end up giving the final result of the island that we have created”.
Lost in paradise?
Namely, Eden is not a single island, a single place, but a puzzle of locations and places. “Inventing the island allows you to have volcanoes, black beaches, almost Mediterranean pine forests”, adds Carles Cambres, head of production for the series.
That advantage was also a major problem or challenge at first. In the process of searching for locations, they included all the Spanish islands and many beaches throughout the territory. “We went through all the islands before deciding on Lanzarote”, Mark reveals.
Pure Lancelot.
PARADISE OR JAIL?
As they filmed in a pandemic, they were able to take advantage of a Lanzarote that was much more deserted than they would find it today, surely. And they rolled almost everywhere. The Mountain Beach Bermeja is the black beach in Welcome to Eden. Caleton White It is the foundation beach. The riding school was filmed in Pools of the Mojon. They were also in Mountain Drive, Cueva Paloma, Volcan del Cuervo and Cueva de los Verdes, which is the sea grotto that will be very important in the plot.
Only one beach, the most important, the first, where the party is held is not in Lanzarote: “It is Cala Treumal –discovers the location manager–, in Lloret de Mar. near Barcelona, the third important pole in the filming. They also shot interiors in Barcelona, and in the province they used the malgrat beach like the pier to the supposed paradise.
Pools of the Mojon.
But, in general, in this fictitious island that they have created, “Lanzarote would be the edges, the most coastal part”, says Martí Marcos. And as the characters go inside, the nature changes and the location too, “we went to Teruel”, Chambers continues. "That's the magic of the screen, that you don't notice those jumps."
In the province of Teruel, near the town of Cretas, they found the houses in which the Fundación Edén community lives, the Solo Houses. Some houses that you may have already seen in another series, The most extraordinary houses in the world. "They are part of an architectural project by a Frenchman who has the idea of involving world-renowned architects and wants to continue building very unique, futuristic, different buildings," explains Cambres.
For now there are two, which are the ones that appear in the series: round, where the community meets; Y the square, where Astrid and Erik live. “The modules, where the rest live, were created by the decoration department on the land of this huge estate that, as a curiosity, It also has very unique sculptures distributed”.
The circle of understanding in Solo Houses.