Netflix’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’ Ten Takes

Netflix’s ambitious series adaptation of Nobel Laureate Gabríel Gárcia Marquez’s seminal novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ would take years of research, drawing extensively from museums, historical documents and historians.

The production was a massive collaborative effort, employing nearly 900 crew members, primarily Colombian, alongside 150 skilled artisans and thousands of extras. More than 850 local suppliers contributed to the ambitious task of constructing the legendary town of Macondo from the ground up, turning a cornerstone of Colombian literature into a tangible, culturally rich reality.

Most of the set pieces were handcrafted by artisans from across Colombia, preserving centuries-old ancestral traditions. Items such as baskets, iraca palm hats, hand-crocheted bags, musical instruments, hammocks, textiles, mats, and nets were created by Indigenous communities, including the Wayuu, Chimila and Kamsá.

The creative team underwent in-depth lessons on Colombian history, delving into events like the Thousand Days’ War, a devastating civil conflict central to Season One. Furthermore, actors trained to speak in the regional Costeño accent and learned period-appropriate skills such as writing in ink by hand, sewing and embroidery.

Colombia or Bust

As Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez told his family, he felt his magnum opus would be better off if it lived on in people’s imaginations. However, if it were made in Spanish and in Colombia across multiple hours, he would consider it. In the words of his filmmaker son Rodrigo Garcia, when Netflix approached them with the idea of a series using above and below the line Colombian talent, the offer was too good to pass up.

According to Garcia, the family felt that they had arrived at a unique intersection—where they were creatively, where serialized storytelling had arrived and where platforms like Netflix had positioned themselves. At the same time, audiences around the world—especially in the U.S.—had largely moved past their resistance to subtitles, thanks in no small part to Netflix. So, among some personal motivations and a mix of practical and literary factors, “it looked like the time was right,” he says.

Dynamo’s Global Experience a Deciding Factor

Tapping the most prominent production company in Colombia, Dynamo, was an obvious choice.  The company, founded in 2006, is known for producing or providing production services to such global hits as Netflix’s Pablo Escobar series “Narcos,” Alejandro Landes’ highly acclaimed “Monos” or Will Smith-led “Gemini Man.”

“When Netflix approached us to see if we could collaborate and support the entire production process, some key figures were already involved—[director/showrunner] Alex García Lopez, for example, was part of their team, as were several of the writers. From that point on, we began building the entire team together. The production design was also handled by Eugenio Caballero and Bárbara Enriquez, who led that aspect from the start, says Dynamo CEO, Andrés Calderón, who serves as executive producer alongside Juliana Flores, Carolina Caicedo and Diego Ramírez.

Tapping Colombia’s Incentives

Netflix leveraged Colombia’s 35% CINA tax rebate for international productions, which covers local audiovisual and logistical expenses. The transferable credit benefits participating Colombian taxpayers, up to an annual cap set by the Colombia Film Promotion Committee. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is the largest and most significant project to use this incentive, and its second season, now filming, is also tapping it, according to Colombian Film Commissioner Silvia Echeverri. The system is self-sustaining, with foreign producers contributing 5% of eligible expenses to the Colombia Film Commission. These funds support operations, promotion, and communications, half of which are reinvested in industry training and education.

Finding Macondo

After convincing Netflix that building Macondo from the ground up was necessary in order to deal with the passage of 100 years, the team led by Oscar-winning production designer Eugenio Caballero (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) traveled across Colombia to find a location that had to be close enough to an airport for logistical reasons, have mountains in the background and a river close by as well as large trees. “We were looking for a wonderful tree, which would be the anchor for the whole story,” says Caballero, whose research spanned at least two years once the project was brought to him. They finally found Ibagué, four hours from the capital of Bogotá, that fit the bill. Building a backlot for an audiovisual project was unheard of in Latin America until then, notes Caballero.

Casting Macondo

The production leaned on Spanish casting directors Yolanda Serrano and Eva Leira, known for adeptly integrating non-pros with professional actors and whose 50+ credits include such hits as “Money Heist” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory.”

Local casting directors María Juliana Casadiego and Carlos Medina helped develop a talent search system focused on finding actors with authenticity, depth and complexity.

Starting in June 2022, a nationwide search in Colombia reviewed over 10,000 candidates to cast around 25 lead roles spanning seven generations of the Buendía family, along with key supporting characters. The series finale alone features nearly 20,000 extras.

Ninety-seven percent of the cast are Colombian actors, chosen through an open online casting call and an extensive search across more than 40 cities and towns nationwide.

Evoking the Landscapes and Geographical Diversity of Colombia

A team of 16 specialists, led by Colombian landscape designer Martha Duque and inspired by the book “La Flora de Macondo,” was responsible for bringing botanical authenticity to the series. Their work ensured both visual coherence in the green landscapes featured on set and the accurate use of the plant species mentioned by García Márquez in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” “We planted several trees, creating our own ecosystem in the end,” says production designer Bárbara Enríquez (“Roma”), who took over from Eugenio Caballero, her collaborator of more than two decades. To authentically evoke the Caribbean coast, Duque imported dozens of native plant species, shaping a living, breathing environment that reflected the world of Macondo.

The production was filmed in 15 Colombian towns, capturing the country’s striking geographic diversity—from the mist-covered Andean forests and alpine tundra of Chingaza National Park to the Caribbean coastal villages near the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, such as Palomino and San Juan del Cesar.

Recreating the Colombia of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Youth

To accurately portray the different cultures and time periods in “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the team spent over three years doing detailed research, which is still ongoing. Everything from the costumes and sets to the plants, food and music has been carefully chosen and created by expert teams.

Music is especially important in placing the story in the 19th and 20th centuries. Composer Juancho Valencia leads the music team, focusing on traditional Colombian folk sounds to bring the world of the series to life.

“Macondo may be fictional, but we envisioned it as a real Caribbean town in Colombia. We built it drawing from the region’s historical architecture—from pre-Hispanic materials like clay and bahareque, to colonial and later republican styles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by towns like Ciénaga, Santa Marta, Aracataca and Barranquilla, we treated Macondo as if we were founding an authentic Caribbean Colombian town shaped by time,” says Enriquez.

An Accurate Rendering of Colombia over a Century

To bring this epic saga to life, the set was designed to evolve like a real town, capturing a century of change. Four distinct versions of Macondo were built from the ground up, along with an 8,611-square-foot recreation of the iconic Buendía house. Over 200 skilled artisans—including heritage experts, botanists, engineers and craftspeople from across the country—collaborated to create more than 90 detailed interior and exterior structures.

Macondo was constructed using an iron framework coated with rice husks and a soap-and-water adhesive over metal mesh. Key locations like the Buendía house, town square, church, hotel, and Catarino’s store were designed to evolve with the story. The Buendía house, blending civil, architectural and scenic design, was built on a 32,292-square-foot slab and completed in 12 weeks—its realism blurring the line between fiction and reality.

Costume Design as Ethnography

Costume designer Catherine Rodriguez, whose credits include Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Birds of Passage,” could have used flights of fancy to dress the inhabitants of imaginary Macondo, but that went against the documentarian in her. “The clothes had to be grounded in reality,” she says. She and her team spent close to a year in pre-production, tapping up to 25 local workshops and design schools to recreate the textiles and shoe wear of the 19th century, using among its many references the “Illustrated Diary of a Traveler” in Colombia by Jose Maria Gutierrez Alba.  ⁠Some 40,000 garments were created from scratch, 97% of which were made with textiles of Colombian origin for Season One, which spans 1850 to 1900.

“For me, costume design is a form of ethnography—it plays a vital narrative role by reflecting historical context, character needs, and story time. It cannot be separated from the reality it portrays. Though the book is set in an imagined world, it draws from 19th-century Colombia’s Caribbean coast. While creativity is welcome, strong references are essential to ensure authenticity,” she notes.

Drawing on Colombia’s Deep Talent Pool 

Colombian filmmaker Laura Mora, whose “The Kings of the World” represented Colombia in the 2023 Oscars, directed three episodes of Season One and directs five on the upcoming Season 2 of the series, alongside Carlos Moreno (“Dog Eat Dog”). They lead the Colombian talent that dominates the production.

“I didn’t want to bring my entire team from Mexico—I wanted to work with experienced Colombian professionals and build a local team. Beyond their expertise, what truly mattered to me was the deep emotional connection Colombians have with ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’ That love is unique, and it’s something you can feel in the series. That’s why nearly 99% of my team is Colombian,” says Enriquez who was born in Argentina but is based in Mexico.

She adds: “The goal was to pay tribute to Colombia in every sense—through its architecture, customs, clothing and key historical events like the Thousand Days’ War and the Banana Massacre—all reflected in the century-long story of ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude.’”