OKUPAS
During the late nineties and early 2000s, art was in flux, a large part of the audiovisual productions of the time portrayed the depth of the social situation that existed in Argentina before the crisis of 2001. The series “OKUPAS” was a clear example of this. It was an Argentine television miniseries of the dramatic genre written and directed by Bruno Stagnaro, produced by Ideas del Sur and originally broadcast between October and December 2000 on Channel 7 of the City of Buenos Aires.
Okupas tells the story of Ricardo (Rodrigo De La Serna), a middle-class boy and three casual friends, “El Pollo” (Diego Alonso Gómez), “Walter” (Ariel Staltari) and “El Chiqui” (Franco Tirri), whose point in common is an old mansion that has fallen into disrepair. There they will take refuge and live the most varied adventures, from contact with drugs and crime, to loyalty and love for friends.
This review does not seek to tell what the series is about. On the contrary, it invites you to watch it, again or for the first time, since it will soon be available on one of the most important streaming platforms. We simply want to focus on detailing some of the scenes that were filmed in our beloved City of Buenos Aires.
The chapter “The Five Commandments” begins with the eviction of a house taken at Pasaje del Carmen 715 in the Congreso neighborhood. Clara, its owner, offers her cousin Ricardo to move in, in order to prevent it from being taken over again, but demands that he comply with five "commandments": “no quilombo, no drugs, no loud music, girls with discretion and not bring anyone into the house.”
In the chapter “El mascapito”, Ricardo explains to the freighter the situation he experienced the night before, and the latter decides to help him confront “Negro Pablo” (Dante Mastropierro). That night, Ricardo confronts Negro in the tower park of Dock Sud. The group ties Negro Pablo and leaves him beaten and naked on the Avellaneda Bridge, this bridge connects the neighborhood of La Boca in the City of Buenos Aires with Dock. Sud in the Avellaneda party, at that moment Ricardo feels compassion for him but the freighter tells him to leave it, that "it's a personal matter."
During the chapter “The Kept”, life goes on normally in the house during the following months: furniture is brought in, the rooms are tidied up and a marijuana plant germinates. But soon a buyer appears for the house and they are kicked out by Eduardo, another of Ricardo's cousins. The friends walk down the street and end up in the bathroom of the San Martín Cultural Center, which is located at Sarmiento 1551 in the San Nicolás neighborhood, where Ricardo takes the lead to force some musicians to play "Mahler's fifth" for them.
Miguel (Jorge Sesán), during the chapter “Paranoia”, teaches Ricardo a way to escape from the house through a water pipe and teaches him how to shoot and steal. They go to Parque Lezama, in the San Telmo neighborhood, where Ricardo seeks to “hunt” his first victim.
In the chapter “The Guardian”, Ricardo gives Sofía a gift to reconcile, and asks her to move in with her son in the mansion, but she confesses that she does not trust Miguel. In Plaza Constitución, attached to the train station of the same name and which gives its name to the neighborhood, Pollo looks for “Quico”, an old friend who now works as a taxi driver, to ask him for a contact in exchange for a percentage of what he gets. in the robbery. In the same chapter, Negro Pablo tests Pollo to check his fidelity: he takes him to Plaza Houssay, located in Barrio Norte, in front of the Faculty of Medicine of the UBA, and gives him a gun with a bullet so he can play at shooting him. to his former friend as a challenge. El Pollo pulls the trigger, but by chance, he hits an empty chamber. During these scenes, images of Almirante Brown Avenue, in the La Boca neighborhood, and Paseo Colón Avenue, in the San Telmo neighborhood, are seen.
During 2001, Okupas won three of the four Martín Fierro awards for which he was nominated, the statuettes for: Best Unitary and/or Miniseries, Best Director and Newcomer (by Diego Alonso Gómez). The series was a success, famous by the public and critics.
After its arrival on the small screen in 2000, it marked the beginning of "marginal" television fiction through an honest and very typical portrait of the scenario of profound social deterioration that gave way to the crisis that broke out a year later in Argentina.
The eleven episodes that make up it will have a soundtrack composed by Santiago Barrionuevo, leader of the band “He Killed a Motorized Policeman”, since the original music of the series, which included songs by local and foreign groups and artists, It had to be modified due to the legal problems linked to copyright that its inclusion on the streaming platform would present.
References and Photographs
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okupas_(serie_de_televisi%C3%B3n)
06/2021
