The series La Casa de Papel (House of Paper) is apparently one of the biggest profiteers of the global quarantine lifestyle in the spring of 2020. While in the years when the first season aired, the series gained an enviable fan base and could be considered an absolute success and mega hit of Spanish TV network Antenna 3, a real miracle happened when the rights to continue filming were taken over by Netflix (They named her Money Heist)- the records held by hit series like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Stranger Things, Walking Dead and others were broken years ago.
WHAT IT IS? In short, he is a mysterious and intelligent guy known as "the Professor" (Álvaro Morte) who gathers a group of talented criminals to commit the robbery of the century together. Each of the robbers has a code name for one of the cities, and the narrator is "Tokyo" (Úrsula Corberó), an impulsive young criminal who has nothing to lose.
In the first two parts, the thieves attack the Spanish national mint, where they take hostages as part of their plan to print out and escape with 2.4 billion euros. In the third part, the surviving thieves, with the help of new members, plan and carry out an attack on the Bank of Spain.
What is the secret of the success of this series What exactly did it take for a series that was not even filmed in English to experience such planetary success? In short, this is a small man's uprising against a large system that is cold and without empathy - taking matters into its own hands. A group of a dozen people on the edge of the law is gathered by a mysterious leader, their organizer and ideologue, on a mission to break into the mint, but not to rob it but to get out of it with over 2 billion freshly printed money. Although it sounds like a clichéd Hollywood screenplay, La Casa de Papel with its story and the realization of that story with Ocean 11 dynamics and melodramatics that only Spaniards can conceive (same director, Alex Pina, directed by Serano) created an authentic atmosphere and a lot of space to identify with someone of characters. That identification carries much greater potential than the realistic - it is an identification with something we could imagine in our teenage fantasies that one day we will become - rebels with an idea, bad guys with irresistible charisma, heroes with many negative traits in which in the end always prevails well. The concept is almost archetypal - Robin Hood with the face of Salvador Dali and in a red working class jumpsuit. There is a class division all over the planet and it is like an elephant in a room when we pretend not to see most of the time. While serving a system that deepens this division, we hide somewhere in ourselves the need for rebellion, which we rarely know how to articulate in the dense schedule of obligations and pleasures that make up popular culture and the capitalist rhythm of life. La Casa de Papel fills that gap - a small man stands on the line of a large system and manages to surpass it.
In the background is Bella Ciao, the anthem of the proletariat, the people, revolt against the great enemy and faith in victory that comes only with sacrifice and unity. These thieves are not only there to satisfy their selfish needs but to show what all can be and do each of us, that borders do not exist. And this time, that enemy is in the present and it is very real - it is a system to which we all belong and whose shortcomings we are aware of. The comparison is very likely completely inappropriate from an artistic point of view, but just as we identified with Zhang while correcting part of the historical injustice in the American South in Tarantino's film, so we now identify with an organized criminal group that causes people to take to the streets. , and police inspectors re-examine whether they are on the right side in the eternal struggle of good and evil.
In the background is Bella Ciao, the anthem of the proletariat, the people, revolt against the great enemy and faith in victory that comes only with sacrifice and unity. These thieves are not only there to satisfy their selfish needs but to show what all can be and do each of us, that borders do not exist. And this time, that enemy is in the present and it is very real - it is a system to which we all belong and whose shortcomings we are aware of. The comparison is very likely completely inappropriate from an artistic point of view, but just as we identified with Zhang while correcting part of the historical injustice in the American South in Tarantino's film, so we now identify with an organized criminal group that causes people to take to the streets. , and police inspectors re-examine whether they are on the right side in the eternal struggle of good and evil.
If you haven't watched this series yet, watch the official trailer for the first one for its first season and judge for yourself whether it will one day become a cult series and whether it deservedly achieved planetary success?
It Is successful because of its bold screen play and acting.. people can feel a sense of revolt against the system..