A building in an industrial estate in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid) has become the headquarters of the Tax Agency for a few days. In reality, it is a block where the production of Sky blue, a series that Movistar Plus+ produces in collaboration with 100 Balas (The Mediapro Studio) and that will premiere in the last quarter of the year, has rented a space to transform it into what could be the office that the Treasury has on Guzmán el Bueno Street. the capital. A gray space, with gray furniture, where an activity is carried out that, seen from the outside, seems just as gray. That was precisely the challenge that screenwriter Diego San José wanted to face: narrate an exciting thriller that takes place in “one of the grayest environments of our culture.” “I find it stimulating that history is born where stories apparently are not born,” he said in mid-April, sitting in the office of his protagonist.
This story, with resonances in reality, has as its protagonist a gray character, Sara Santano, a Treasury inspector about to retire who has dedicated her entire life to her profession. The inspection for possible tax evasion by a very famous Latin singer falls into her hands, for which she must investigate whether she has resided in Spain for half the year plus one day. At stake are 20 million euros for the Spanish public coffers.
For San José, it is curious how the Treasury inspectors, “an elite body,” are socially “a kind of outcasts.” “The Treasury inspector manages to bring the two Spains to an agreement, everyone is suspicious of him. And it’s curious, because we should all adore them because it depends on their work that things go better for all of us, they redistribute wealth,” says the creator of the series sitting at his protagonist’s table. On one wall, a large blackboard shows all the days of the year with different colored post-its to visually identify the days that the inspector knows that the singer was in Spain, those that she has verified that she was not there, and those about which she has doubts. “We start from the Treasury so that a thrillerwith the twists and surprises that the story of a detective facing a kidnapper would have, but here there is no kidnapping, there is an apparent tax fraud, and there is no murderer, there is an artist who, if it is proven that she lives in Spain, there is a great loot to enjoy,” he adds.
Carmen Machi is in charge of giving life to that gray woman who is Sara. “She is gray for people, she doesn’t feel that way. She has neglected herself as a woman because she has not had time either. She is hidden from the light, all day dedicated to her work. I see her as an admirable woman, tremendously smart, cultured…, I wish I did,” she says after going through makeup and already with the costume and wig that turn her into this diligent civil servant.
Several elements of the series help to highlight the subdued environment in which Sara moves and the contrast with the bright and spontaneous world of Celeste, the Latin artist played by the Mexican Andrea Bayardo. Marta Murillo, head of Clothing, visited the area of Guzmán el Bueno where the Treasury inspectors move and verified that the clichés correspond to reality. There she found, for example, a lot of zip-up sweaters and shirts, and a color palette that ranges between gray, navy blue, brown and green.
Clothing will be essential to show the evolution of the characters. In Sara’s case, she always wears skirts, from a certain point on she switches to pants. For Celeste, the series team has had to recreate her entire life, which will be reflected, for example, in the magazines and photos that the inspector collects. “We started with things that were a little uglier, more chony, because the evolution of these stars is like that, they start without advisors and doing what they can with their clothes. Then they have more money, more advisors and everything is more elegant and less obvious,” says Murillo. For the Latin singer’s wardrobe, the Wardrobe manager has been inspired by Shakira (the most obvious reference for the character, given her problems with the Treasury) but also by other artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Dua Lipa and, above all, Beyoncé.
The Art team also immersed itself in the world of the Treasury. “In the script, Sara is a gray person, and we had to reinforce it with the sets. But really the people of the Hacienda are the happiest in the world,” points out Marc Pou, Art Director. The protagonist’s house is classic, “without great artistic or design pretensions, since the seventies it has remained the same,” he describes. Pou was inspired by the most conservative political class in Madrid. For the offices, he visited the Barcelona Treasury delegation, where he asked everything she needed to recreate her world as faithfully as possible. It is taken care of down to the smallest detail, and when you walk through the fictitious office, you find mouse pads, desk calendars or posters of activities of the union of technicians of the Ministry of Finance or folders provided by the Tax Agency. Thanks to a special permission they have been able to reproduce the logo, which is very present. “In a real office there is not so much logo, but our viewer will not know that we are there if it is not very visible,” clarifies Pou.
Although the series has Diego San José behind it (Vote Juan, Eight Basque surnames), Carmen Machi assures that “it is the furthest thing from a comedy that you can imagine, although it has situations that can lead to laughter.” “There are no jokes. There are no misunderstandings, no gags or clumsy characters,” says San José. “It’s going to be fun because it’s going to be done very seriously.” Sky blue it’s a thriller both in the script and in its image. Director Elena Trapé, responsible for the six half-hour episodes, has found her visual references in the thriller classic. He also points out spotlightset in a newsroom in the early 2000s, and for the character of Carmen Machi it mentions the Chilean film Glory“because in parallel to this thriller There is the intimate journey of this woman, which begins in a very gray and sad place, a woman who feels that nothing else is going to happen to her in life, and through investigation and contrast with Celeste, she feels exciting things again. “, says.
One goal of Diego San José is that if a Treasury inspector watches the series, he finds his world and his work reflected correctly. The scriptwriter wanted to meet with real tax inspectors to ask them about their daily lives and some curiosities, but the fact that almost no tax inspector publicly identifies himself as such made the task difficult. “They say that they are officials or that they work for the State, but they do not say that they are Treasury inspectors to avoid questions or not generate suspicion,” he explains. He managed to speak with three of them, who have also served as advisors on details such as what the office would be like or the appropriate terms in the dialogues. Carmen Machi highlights the role of one of them that has resolved specific doubts. “They are very happy, they have never had a series. They have read the scripts and they like it because what we say is that you have to pay taxes accordingly,” says the actress.
Now that you know more about his world from the inside, has this series changed the image that Machi has of Treasury inspectors? “No,” he says between laughs. “They reach the point of obsession, which is normal, it is their job, but as taxpayers we all feel what we feel. I do what I have to do, but I recognize that he is a suspicious entity. What has changed me is seeing that there is a life behind these people. My thoughts don’t change with the tax inspectors, but it does with the women who may be within them. Now I’m intrigued by who the audience will go with, Sara or Celeste.”
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