Wide-eyed expectant mother Pilar (Lucía Guerrero, “Money”) takes up residence at an idyllic domed birthing retreat after a climate-fuelled crisis leads to a toxic atmosphere. She is introduced to Valle (Aura Garrido, “What the Future Holds”), the engineer tasked with looking after the women, and comes to senses the serene refuge holds a set of macabre secrets, nothing as it seems.
“Sanctuary” (“Santuario”), the first co-production between Spain’s internationally ambitious Atresmedia TV (“Money Heist,” “Velvet”) and Carolina Bang and Alex de la Iglesia at Madrid’s Banijay-backed Pokeepsie Films (“30 Coins”), merges a not-so-implausible, ominous backdrop with strong female leads to showcase the breadth of feminine resolve in the face of clear and present danger, all with a gripping tension.
“Four years ago, we loved the podcast. The story was so powerful and well-crafted that turning it into a series was something that happened very naturally,” Montse García, director of fiction at Atresmedia, told Variety. “We’ve collaborated with the creators of the podcast themselves for this adaptation, which has allowed the world of the series to stay true to the original vision. Additionally, working with Pokeepsie Films, specialists in science fiction, has resulted in a spectacular series in every way,” she added.
García serves as executive producer alongside Rodrigo Ruiz-Gallardón with and Bang and De la Iglesia on board as producers.
The eight-episode thriller, chosen to showcase at upcoming Berlinale Series Market Selects, is directed by Ruiz-Gallardón and Zoe Berriatúa. The team delve headlong into the uncanny to bring the fascinating world of the podcast to the screen.
“During the months we spent developing the scripts, the project evolved in a very specific direction. Although the foundation was solid, I sensed a certain fragility in translating all that information into the final work. Maintaining that fidelity was what led me to take on the role of director,” Ruiz-Gallardón relayed.
“Establishing a cohesive visual language was essential; every element needed a purpose, a justification, and a connection to the other aspects of the environment. From the architecture, lighting, and props to the language, gestures, and movements of the actresses, everything had to be interconnected to create a unified whole that conveyed the sense of an artificial and oppressive reality,” he added.
“The possibility of creating a new universe, with its own rules, aesthetics, and even ethics, was incredibly appealing to me. I was fascinated by how the very concept of ‘reality’ was addressed. What would happen if everything we perceive, think, and remember were ‘artificial?’ The idea of ‘I think, therefore I am’ is based on the premise that the only thing we can’t doubt is our own thoughts, yet we’re getting closer to a technological level capable of manipulating them. ‘Sanctuary’ gave me the opportunity to build a world where this becomes a reality.”
Creators Pacheco and Bartual conceived the podcast based on a conversation they had at a restaurant. Its two seemingly disparate female leads are centered to anchor the plot, which revolves around their tenacity and a high-dose of intuition.
“Manuel had sold Audible a one-paragraph synopsis for a story. When he shared it with me, we decided to change it, keeping the structure but incorporating other themes like surrogacy and motherhood, which ultimately became key to creating the entire universe of Sanctuary. And from that conversation, our protagonists, Valle and Pilar, were born,” Pacheco explained.
“Bringing together two characters with such opposite backgrounds gave us a lot to work with, while also exemplifying the deeply divided universe we were imagining for ‘Sanctuary.’ Valle and Pilar are two very strong but also very vulnerable women, and part of their strength doesn’t surface until they begin to trust each other. On many levels, it’s the story of the journey they take together, which serves as our lens to explore the world where the series unfolds,” Bartual added.
Alba Ribas, Songa Park, Anna Canepa, Jaime Ordoñez, Melida Molina, Joan Sentís, Borja Luna, Manu Fullola, Juan Viadas, Blanca Velletbó, Melina Matthews and Godeliv Van Den Brandt round out the ensemble.
From podcast to script and beyond, the creators were challenged with taking an audio concept already devoured by the public and attempting to stay true to those broadly-formed mental renderings.
“We focused on outlining and defining only what we felt was essential to understand the story, leaving many details of the universe to the listener’s imagination. When the time came to adapt the podcast into a television series, we had to ask ourselves many questions about what that world truly looked like, and the answers we found were what ultimately gave ‘Sanctuary’ its final shape,” Bartual admitted.
The first two episodes concretely define the claustrophobic space and allow the two women to settle firmly into their archetypes.
Bright white surroundings, plants that have now gone real-world scarce, contrast with the blood-red hazmat suits worn by the Sanctuary staff. The gestating women are docile and encouraged not to question the process, distracted by activities like yoga, painting or listening to music. Humble daily routines and conversations dot the atmosphere, but along the way Pilar’s curiosity gets the better of her, placing a target on her back as the outfit works feverishly to conceal the true reason for the venture.
At one time, “Sanctuary” and its themes could have been far-away sci-fi fodder, but as climate woes continue to pair with politically-charged prejudice and looming blowback from fast-moving technological advancements-the scenarios seem shockingly palpable.
“We’ve surprised ourselves with how, over five years, some of the topics we explore in ‘Sanctuary,’ like the climate crisis or artificial intelligence, have become so prominent. We wish we’d been less accurate,” Pacheco relayed.
“I think our series is just one of many dystopias that have sounded the alarm about the catastrophic direction society was heading in. The problem is that these stories have often been consumed unconsciously, almost romanticizing post-apocalyptic scenarios. I think it’s time to stop watching dystopian sci-fi and thinking, ‘Wow, how scary, this could happen if we keep going this way,’ and start saying, ‘Okay, what do we need to do right now to make sure this never happens?’