Putting together Broken Spies
A squad of women spies is at the centre of the Portuguese war effort in As Espias (Broken Spies). Creator Pandora da Cunha Telles and director João Maia reveal the secrets behind this period drama that explores Portugal’s unique role between two global enemies.
In 1942, the world is at war. But as the conflict rages around it, neutral Portugal sits like a quiet oasis on the edge of the Atlantic as its network of casinos, hotels and secret hideouts provide a safe haven for thousands of refugees – and spies.
It’s here that a group of daring women spies, recruited by Britain’s MI6, exchange vital information that could turn the tide of the conflict, identifying the position of German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic and deceiving the Nazis about the Allies’ plans.
This is the setup for As Espias (Broken Spies), an upcoming seven-part period drama for Portuguese broadcaster RTP, in which spies Bárbara (Madalena Almeida) and Rose (Maria João Bastos) walk a dangerous tightrope between British intelligence, Nazi operatives and the Portuguese secret police.
Produced by Ukbar Filmes and Krakow Film Klaster, with distribution by True Colours, the series comes from creator and showrunner Pandora da Cunha Telles. Due to air this autumn, it is directed by João Maia and Laura Seixas.
Following its world premiere screening among the Berlinale Series Market Selects at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, Telles and Maia tell DQ about the origins of the project, building the world of the show and their partnership behind the scenes.
Broken Spies follows in the footsteps of another spy series created by Telles, 2020’s A Espia, which is set in the same “universe” but tells a new story.
Telles: We both love spies so we started to work together on that show, A Espia. It was the same universe, but we wanted to create something different. Portugal during the Second World War had so many stories. It was full of 007s. Everybody was coming to Portugal so you could indefinitely do series about spies. The idea of this series, Broken Spies, was to take a lot of true stories from real spies who passed through Portugal and to transform them in women spies. Our spies are completely invented, but inspired by real spies that passed through Portugal.
Barbara and Rose are the two central figures in the story.
Telles: Barbara and Rose are the main characters. Barbara is in the middle of the Germans and the English, and then you understand that there are other spies from each side who try to take her out of that position. She is the backbone of the story.
It’s about a young girl who is very resourceful in Figueira da Foz during the Second World War. She’s getting played by the two sides of the war and it’s about how she manages to get by while being played by both sides and by the people she falls in love with.
Though the series is set in the 1940s, director Maia wanted a contemporary look.
Telles: Their actions, the way they dress, their hair – they’re not women frozen in the 40s, so they are much more expanded as characters. They don’t have high heels, they wear a lot of trousers, they don’t have that much lipstick, so it’s not over-stylised. We wanted to approach the actual concept of women today.
Maia: I love it. In this show, we decided to do something a little bit different in terms of storytelling, but also in terms of filmmaking. It’s always a challenge to do something set in the 40s.
The series is set between Lisbon and Figueira da Foz, where production took place. An area north of Lisbon was also used to replicate scenes set in England, while VFX were used to help turn back the clock on some locations and also create submarines and planes.
Maia: This city, Figueira da Foiz, is one of the cities of Portugal that was famous for tourism. Back then, it already had a casino, so it fit in our story. We were always on location, dressing old palaces and old houses. We didn’t shoot in a studio.
Telles: The work of the VFX supervisors was also very important, because even in prep we could say, ‘We want this battle. We want the submarine arriving,’ and they would tell us exactly what we could do and what we could not do, so we didn’t write something we couldn’t do. That was nice.
Working alongside six additional writers, Telles first created a “world room” where the setting of the show was developed, before opening a “story room” to build the characters.
Telles: We went to see the locations in Figueira da Foz and in Lisbon before we wrote the show, so we decided on the universe. Then we decided that Barbara was a girl from Figueira da Foz, that she works in the salt fields, she has a bicycle. So we defined her universe and it’s a universe that you normally don’t connect to Portugal, the salt fields.
We decided the world is in Figueira da Foz, and that it has a lot of colour, even with the clothes, and then we did the cars. Then when we go to Lisbon, we decided to have a darker Lisbon. You have everything that is connected with the [authoritarian government] regime, so the cars are all black, you have a lot of statues of the 30s like you have in Italy and in Germany. We shot in places that have a lot of the old regime. So it’s very stylised, the exterior in Lisbon.
Maia: Then the countryside feels more like freedom.
Telles: It has the beach, the salt, it has more green. We needed to make them two completely different worlds. That was very important. So when we wrote the scripts, we already knew we wanted this system.
Prep on the series involved lots of research into spies. Telles even consulted with the actors to ask what their characters might be eating in a scene.
Telles: It’s a system I try to create with every department – the art, what Bárbara has on the bed, what she has on the walls, her clothes.
Barbara has long hair at the beginning and she wears something to transport salt in her hair, so she starts as a very typical character from Figueira da Foz. Then when she meets Rose, she cuts her hair to give her a modernist tone. But she continues to have the little pocket from Figueira da Foz. Then at the end of the series, she doesn’t have it anymore, so the character is changing in little ways.
Working with the cast, directors Maia and Seixas didn’t have time for a lot of rehearsals. The shoot took place across eight weeks, with the decision to have two units working side by side for five weeks, which created challenges on set.
Maia: We did have some rehearsals, especially with Madalena, who plays Barbara. She’s one of our best actors. We had one week of rehearsals at the most. It was challenging, especially for the assistant director, because the actors cannot be in two places at once. We were very busy, but it was fine. It is good for production to have two crews shooting simultaneously. For five weeks, we worked at the same time.
The trickiest scenes featured explosions. Maia worked closely with the show’s DOP and effects team to work out the best way to shoot these complex moments.
Maia: It’s fun to have these scenes, but to have it too much, sometimes it’s a little boring because I like to work more with the actors and follow the story.
Telles and Maia shared a close working relationship through the series, with Telles also working as the producer during shooting.
Telles: Sometimes I didn’t know if he wanted me to be off the set, but he was really nice and he has an energy with actors that is amazing, so all these women spies were thrilled to work with him. My characters just became my characters because he was directing them.
This is just my second show. He grounds me, and I’m forever grateful for that because I think it’s a better show because he’s directing it. The flaws the show has, he covers them up very nicely and puts his touch on it.
Telles and Maia hope Broken Spies stands out in a country that doesn’t produce a lot of period dramas, telling a story that shines a light on a country at a specific point in time.
Telles: Every time there are stories about the Second World War, there’s this thing that Portugal was a country that was neutral. But it was not really neutral, because a lot of people like [ruling dictator António de Oliveira] Salazar were playing with both sides. I was talking to my actors and they were saying, ‘If we weren’t neutral, most likely we would not be talking here now because if we went for the Allies or we went to the Nazis, we would have been bombed.’ Our location was really good for both sides, so if Portugal was in the war, most likely we would not be talking here.
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Glória: A Cold War drama set in 1960s Portugal that follows a young engineer from a small town who is recruited by the KGB.
The Americans: During the Cold War, two Russian spies, who are married to each other and have children, pose as Americans while residing in Washington DC.
A Spy Among Friends: A British series in which an MI6 intelligence officer learns his close friend is a double agent for the Soviet Union.
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tagged in: As Espias, Broken Spies, João Maia, Krakow Film Klaster, Pandora da Cunha Telles, RTP, True Colours, Ukbar Filmes