Pushing the boat out

Three-part miniseries La Ley del Mar (The Law of the Sea) dramatises the true story of a Spanish fishing crew who rescued a group of stranded migrants and sparked a diplomatic crisis. DQ hears about why this universal story can cross borders, and the challenges of filming at sea.

When the crew of the Francisco y Catalina left the Spanish town of Santa Pola to fish in the Mediterranean Sea, they didn’t realise they would soon find themselves at the centre of a humanitarian and diplomatic standoff.

Yet that’s exactly what happened in July 2006 when they came across a boat carrying 51 stranded migrants – including a young girl and a pregnant woman – in international waters. Invoking the ‘Law of the Sea,’ they determined to rescue them and take them to the Maltese capital of Valetta. But when they arrived, they were prevented from landing by local patrol ships.

For nine days, the crew – led by captain José ‘Pepe’ Durá – and the migrants lived together aboard the fishing boat while Spanish and Maltese authorities, and others, sought a resolution to the crisis. Meanwhile, on shore, the families of the crew including Pepe’s wife Pepi Irles, a manager of the fishing boat company, brought the crisis to the public’s attention as the Spanish ambassador to Malta, Andrea de Velasco Lorente, led the charge to find a solution – one that would go on to change EU legislation relating to immigration.

Spanish producer, comedian and screenwriter Enrique Domingo Pérez Vergara (aka Flipy) was among those to learn about the events in the Mediterranean from newspaper and TV reports, and he became the driving force behind a dramatisation called La Ley del Mar (The Law of the Sea) that aired in Spain earlier this year.

“It was an amazing case that changed politics in the EU, only because of the decision of two normal people, Pepe and Pepi. They are the real heroes of this story,” he says. “Then we decided to contact Tatiana Rodriguez and Victor Pedreira to write the script, and we decided the best way for this story was a miniseries.”

That decision allowed the drama to be told from three different viewpoints – those on board the boat, the families of the crew, and the politicians in Madrid and elsewhere across Europe who became involved in resolving the plight of the migrants. Blanca Portillo plays Lorente.

“It’s our local history but with universal qualities,” Flipy continues. “We spoke first of all with Pepe and Pepi, and they helped us a lot with the script and helped the actors. We also spoke with the foreign office in Spain who liked the project and helped us, and tried to explain how they worked with politicians in the EU. Then Alberto [Ruiz Rojo], the director, his point of view [in terms of] the direction and cameras and the way he decided to [work] in the boat was very successful.”

“We chose a direct style with the camera very close to the characters,” Rojo explains. “The most important thing is their point of view in the story. It creates empathy for the story, and when Flipy showed me the script, I liked it very much. I said this is a story with a soul, and this is very rare. I enjoyed it a lot.”

Produced by Studio 60 for Spanish national broadcaster RTVE’s La 1 and Valencia-based À Punt, the series touches on themes and issues that will undoubtedly be relevant to many countries facing up to the causes and consequences of immigration.

“The problem of immigration is around the world,” says Flipy. “One of the things we talked about with Lamine [Thior, who plays Barack, one of the migrants in the series] was when the news talks about immigration, they talk about numbers. But we decided to put names to that number. When you use names, you recognise they are people like us and they have a story. We thought that was really important, because immigration is not only a problem in Europe or the US. There are problems around the world.”

“It’s a story that unites us as human beings,” Thior says. “At the end of the day, The Law of the Sea is a story that goes beyond [Spain]. Regardless of countries, it’s a story that moves everyone.”

But as with any drama based on a true story, some creative licence has been used to develop the character relationships, most notably that between Pepe (Luis Tosar) and Pepi (Sonia Almarcha), and the bond between Pepe and Barack aboard the Francisco y Catalina.

“Sometimes you say, ‘OK, we’re going to strictly tell what happens,’ but this is not the best choice because, if you adapt reality for fiction, you need to increase the dramatic tropes and the dramatic structure,” Rojo says. “In this case, we adapted some personal issues to increase the drama, but in spirit it is the reality.”

Thior wanted to take the opportunity that appearing in the series provided to break some stereotypes around migrants, whom he says are often portrayed in a way that suggests “their only skill seems to be that they are migrants.”

“During the casting, I found it very interesting that we could find characters who have many colours and emotional depth,” Thior continues. “Our Arabic coach was in one of the scenes played with Luis, and they said it was one of the best scenes in the series, showing the importance of illegal migrants talking to people who are not migrants, so it was a very special moment.”

Another special period for cast and crew alike was the 18 days they spent together shooting the boat scenes at sea, most often in water five or 10 miles off the coast of Alicante, after the production team decided against using a water tank for filming.

“We thought about it, we have one in Spain, but then we said, ‘We’ll shoot in the sea for real.’ It’s more realistic but more risky too. Many people told us crazy things, but I think it was a very good choice,” Rojo says. “It gave us reality, but it was very difficult. You have to orientate the boat for every shot, and there were 80 people in a 45-metre boat. But we enjoyed it a lot. It created a special relationship with all the crew and actors. We made a family here.”

With a reported budget of €3m (US$3.3m), The Law of the Sea would have proven to be an expensive proposition either way, with the costly use of boats at sea mitigating the need to spend money on visual effects after filming at a tank.

“We thought that this story, something close to documentary, would not be helped by VFX, and that’s why we decided to shoot in the real sea,” notes producer Rafa Parbús. “It was complicated at the beginning, but the worst idea [practically] was the best idea for the project.”

Some actors also took longer than others to find their sea legs. “I didn’t want to take the [sickness] pill. I thought, ‘I’m a real actor, I don’t need that.’ But yes, I needed a lot of pills,” admits Thior. “The relationship between all of us was really marvellous. We are a family; we were a family during the whole shoot.”

The importance of the topic at the heart of The Law of the Sea, which is also on Netflix in some territories, and the way it has been portrayed in the show has already earned the production team an award in the shape of the Monaco Red Cross Special Prize, picked up during the Monte-Carlo Television Festival earlier this summer. It recognises a fiction programme that demonstrates one of the fundamental principles of the charity organisation, whether humanity, impartiality, independence, neutrality, charity, unity or universality.

“We are very happy because we have the honour to receive an award because of the values of the series, the humanity, the fraternity, human values and story that help people to sit a moment and think about how we are as a society,” adds Flipy. “Every one of us has roots, but we are not trees. We have the right to move wherever we want.”

tagged in: Alberto Ruiz Rojo, Enrique Domingo Pérez Vergara, La 1, La Ley del Mar, Lamine Thior, Rafa Parbús, RTVE, Studio 60, The Law of the Sea