"Everything that is said about your generation, that you are open and tolerant, is it a lie?" That drops the teacher (Eloy Azorin) in the first chapter of the age of anger (Atresplayer Premium) to his students, a group of teenagers who think they're very free and libertine but when it comes down to it, they're not so free. It is what adolescence has, which is not easy and is very arrogant.
The Age of Wrath, adaptation of the homonymous novel by Nando Lopez, it is a journey through that current adolescence, for that journey of initiation to adulthood, discovering what you want, who you are, what you don't want, who you don't want to be... A path in which many elements intersect and in which the development space is also important.
The novel was already located in Madrid, but no specific places or corners were mentioned. In the series, that had to change, and they made the decision that the places did matter and if they were recognizable.
In the corridors of the Ramiro de Maeztu.
“We wanted to show Madrid from everyday life”, explains the director of the four-part series, Jesus Rodrigo. "The life that kids lead in a big city, where they can be anonymous." A very useful anonymity to free himself even from his own repressions and fears, as happens to the protagonist Marcos (Manu Rios).
Madrid is not just another character, but it is an important backdrop. “We did not want particularly emblematic places, we did not intend to make a tourist tour of the city, but we did want reference sites for the key moments in the life of a teenager, where this opening up to the world takes place, they begin to go out, they go to a bottle, where they go to party, where they meet to chat…”, continues Rodrigo.
Sandra and Marcos in the Plaza del Alamillo.
The first location you see is the outside of the City of Journalists, the housing blocks in Herrera Oria, north of Madrid, which were built in the 1970s for members of the Press Association. Mark lives there. The story begins and ends with him. He supposedly he has killed his father. In the novel, it is told in an investigation format of a (precisely) journalist. In the series, they decided to change the points of view. "We wanted to tell the same story, but from the kids' point of view" explains the manager.
Each chapter tells how Marcos is from the point of view of a character, his best friend, Sandra (Amaia Aberasturi), his best friend, Raul (Daniel Ibanez) and his brother, Ignacio (Carlos Alcaide). “And the last chapter is that of Marcos. With everyone, the puzzle that wants to build Marcos's profile is put together, ”he continues.
The romantic Viaduct.
To learn more, the tour continues through Madrid. The institute is a famous center of the city: the Ramiro de Maeztu, where the classrooms and corridors were filmed for two weeks.
But The Age of Rage is not a high school series, it's about what happens to these young people outside of those classrooms. They go out at night. Of a bottle “Although we did have to cheer them up a little bit,” he says. And they rolled under the Segovia viaduct. Also above the famous bridge of Bailen Street. And in the Vistillas. Nearby, in the Plaza de Oriente.
The Madrid of the Austrians it is well recognized in the walks of the leading trio. Through the character of Raúl, who is new to the city, a little more than typical tourism is allowed, going through the Main Square or under the Arco de Cuchilleros.
Raul in the Plaza Mayor.
They look on those walks Recoletos, the Plaza de Toros de las Ventas, the Circle of Fine Arts, the Almudena Cemetery, the area of Vallecas, also streets of Chueca and Malasana. In that last neighborhood, the bar from the first chapter will sound familiar to many, a classic: The Milky Way. And they even go out of town. The key scene of the series takes place in the Lozoya reservoir.
In recent years, many young series have been developed in Madrid and they have used the city almost as a protagonist, The age of anger did not intend to look for a special Madrid, but rather everyday, recognizable and that does not bother, but rather accompanies its protagonists. “It is a series of adolescents who come to life, encountering problems and those contradictions of discovering their identity ¬–explains Jesús Rodrigo–, we wanted the city will be part of that growth, of that evolution and of that journey”. A trip to become as free and tolerant as Madrid can be.
Some little dances in the Milky Way.