‘Cardo’ Creators Claudia Costafreda and Ana Rujas on the Breakout Spanish Series of 2021
variety.comEmilio Mayorga Spain’s trendiest twosome, Claudia Costafreda and Ana Rujas, are co-creators of “Cardo,” the series on everyone’s lips since launching last fall on Atresplayer, the OTT platform run by Spanish media conglom Atresmedia, last fall and one of Variety’s best international TV shows of 2021.Rujas stars in the furious tirade against external, bogus beauty standards and Costafreda directs with Lluís Sellarès also heading two episodes. “Cardo” is co-produced by Atresmedia’s production arm Buendía Estudios and Suma Content (formerly Suma Latina), the outfit setup by iconic multi-hyphenate partners Los Javis (“Veneno”), selected by Variety as talents to track, as was Costafreda. “Cardo” offers a raw, deeply disinhibited portrait of almost 30-year-old María, a character who rebels against her own attractiveness, as the actress herself – formerly a model– did on stage in the acclaimed production “The Ugliest Women in the World,” written by Rujas and Bárbara Mestanza.
María, distraught and confused, must face the consequences of a crazy night out which culminates in a tragic motorbike crash.With a strong auteurist personality, “Cardo” – a contemptuous Spanish term for ugly women – casts its secondary characters and environments in dark comedic tones at times, while at others it demonstrates a wildly dramatic flair with touches of Buñuel, Almodóvar and costumbrismo – a Spanish term for an artistic movement in which art imitates life.
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