Students from the Faculty of Communication at the University of Vigo are filming a web series titled Las hijas de Bernarda in Entrimo, a town in the province of Ourense, Galicia. This production is inspired by García Lorca's renowned play La casa de Bernarda Alba.
The initiative allows students from the Pontevedra campus to apply their learning in a practical setting, engaging in the real process of creating audiovisual fiction. The web series is being developed as part of the Celanova workshop, a fiction set included in the programming of the Audiovisual Media Course organised annually since 2010 by the Carlos Casares Foundation and the Faculty of Communication, with support from the University of Vigo, the Ourense Provincial Council, and Agadic.
After forming their team, assigning roles, and establishing a work schedule, the students spent the summer working on various script versions and scouting for locations and actresses. Following the pre-production phase, they are now in the midst of filming, which will take place from 23 to 27 October.
The project involves 17 students from the final and penultimate years of the Audiovisual Communication Degree, along with actresses Mayka Braña, Beatriz Barcia, Ariadna Santana, Lydia Prada, Helena Jes, and Sandra Folgar. The chosen filming location is the “doctor's house” in Entrimo, a building designed in the indiano style, which refers to the architecture brought back by emigrants who returned from the Americas.
Regarding the series' theme, the students explain, “rather than adapting La casa de Bernarda Alba literally, our intention is to engage in dialogue with it and demonstrate that a work written nearly a century ago can still resonate with us today.” The narrative focuses on how “four sisters, confined under Bernarda's control, confront desire, jealousy, and a forbidden love that threatens to tear the family apart,” revealing that “beneath the apparent calm of the house, secrets, rivalries, and forbidden desires begin to surface.” The tone of the series leans towards black comedy while maintaining the underlying conflict.
The team highlights García Lorca's significance in 20th-century Spanish literature, noting that the issues presented in La casa de Bernarda Alba remain relevant today. They point out that themes such as female repression, family conflicts, the weight of male power, and the struggle between personal desires and societal expectations are still part of contemporary reality. Through their audiovisual production, the team aims to explore how these dynamics can continue to manifest within families, revealing hidden desires, secrets, and frustrations behind a facade of normality.
The web series also serves as a tribute to García Lorca, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of his assassination. The students express satisfaction with the project's development, stating, “our main goal is to gain practical experience and confront the various needs and challenges involved in producing an audiovisual piece.” They aim to complete the project from start to finish, creating a polished, coherent work with its own identity. Additionally, they hope to learn from the process, enhance their teamwork skills, and acquire tools and experience applicable to future professional projects.
Accompanying the students during the filming in Entrimo is Paulino Pérez, a professor at the University of Vigo and director of the Cemac workshop. He emphasises that “the experience is very positive as it closely resembles a real shoot: working with a fixed budget, departmental development, and, importantly, collaboration and teamwork. It is a fantastic opportunity for our students to apply all the knowledge they have gained in their degree.”
