‘Intimacy’ uncovers a sexual video of the deputy mayor of Bilbao

Itziar Ituño, deputy mayor of Bilbao, in the Arab Hall of the City Hall in a scene from ‘Intimacy’.

The City Hall, the Guggenheim, the University of Deusto, Abandoibarra, Sopela… The Netflix series that premieres this Friday has been shot in more than 70 locations in Bizkaia

The use of videos and photographs of sexual content to destroy a woman is not something that sounds like fiction, unfortunately. When the filter of this content is an ex-partner, it is called ‘revenge porn’; the images, obtained with or without consent, are sent (this time without any consent and, by the way, committing a crime) to friends, acquaintances and strangers to ruin the life of the woman, who often thinks she deserves it, that it is his fault, that he should never have done this or that, that he misused his freedom… and all this means that a large part of those affected do not file a complaint. Some come to commit suicide, unable to bear a digital gender violence that there are people who laugh, because the sexual life of a woman, in short, is to make jokes and elbow each other between friends.

Ane, one of the two protagonists of ‘Intimacy’, the series that premieres this Friday on Netflix, before the pressure and harassment in the factory where she works after a leak like this, takes her own life. It is not to burst the argument: practically that is how the series begins. Well, with that death and with the story of Malen, the deputy mayor of the Bilbao City Council – future mayor – who also sees how a sex video can destroy her career and her life. ‘Intimacy’ was shot last year for a whopping 20 weeks in more than 70 locations in Bizkaia, mostly in Bilbao.

Itziar Ituño rolls ‘Intimacy’ outside the Azkuna Center.

They are all real scenarios, without using a set. The technical team was made up of 140 people and the actors, among whom there is a majority presence of Basques, are around a hundred. In the eight chapters of just under an hour, Basque is heard naturally. Only in the first episode do locations appear such as Bilbao City Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, Deusto University, Abandoibarra, Idom engineering, the Bidebarrieta Library, the Alhóndiga, Sopela beach…

They are two very different women: one (Ane, played by Verónica Echegui) is a worker with a small family network, her sister and her partner. The other (Malen, Itziar Ituño), a lawyer who is a public figure, married and with a teenage daughter, with a father who is an expert in law, with financial resources and contacts. In Malen’s case, it’s not about revenge porn. Political and business interests seem to be behind the publication of the video.

The protagonists of ‘Intimacy’: Veronica Echegui, Patricia Lopez Arnaiz, Itziar Ituno, Yune Nogueiras, Ana Wagener and Emma Suarez.

Laura Sarmiento, co-writer and director of this eight-episode series shot entirely in Bilbao, wonders if a video of this type would have the same weight in the life of a man, known or anonymous. The question is rather rhetorical. Because it doesn’t seem like it. Sex is still a weapon used against women. We see it on the news. Three years ago a 32-year-old woman committed suicide in Madrid after experiencing what Ane lives in fiction, although the idea for the series predates this event. It was already in the heads of Sarmiento and Verónica Fernández because «the problem is their sexualization, also to destroy them. Women are attacked in this way. They feel guilt, shame, fear of the damage that the images will do to their relatives… «And also the word victim, as they say in the series, has a connotation of weakness that they do not want to assume. And no: in this there are victims and there are executioners. We all have the right to our privacy and to decide what we show of it and what not. Violating that is violence, serious violence.”

Itziar Ituño and Emma Suárez at the Bilbao City Council.

Chapter by chapter, ‘Intimacy’ is putting that violence, gender roles, on the table -Malen tells her husband that he knows how to “sing and take care” and he, for what will they say, has a hard time accepting that this is the role what he wants in his relationship-, the power struggle within a party and between politicians and big businessmen, how fragile some family ties are, the weight of social networks, the different ways of coping with pain, also homophobia. And the “enormous consequences that a click on networks has for the day-to-day of the victims and those around them,” says actress Ana Wagener, the investigator of the Ane and Malen cases. “It is an expansive wave that is tremendous and we must insist a lot on this to make us aware of its importance. Freedom of expression in no case is to lose respect and to cross the limits of the private.

Sarmiento does not expect to start a “revolution” with the series, but he does hope to stir some conscience. And at least put on the table issues that are hardly discussed publicly. «That people come to see it even with a certain prejudice, and that they can empathize. That is what fiction allows », he maintains. “Watching fiction nourishes you, gives you other views, we watch so many series because we need to learn.” ‘Intimacy’, during filming, had this effect with the actresses -the cast is mostly female-: initiate dialogues, reflect. “The series has caused a lot of debate among us,” says Yune Nogueiras, who plays Malen’s teenage daughter. «It is very interesting to see that detail that brings you closer to the reality of things and to be aware of that perversion of the gender system. We still have a lot to discover about each one of us, “says Patricia López Arnáiz, Ane’s sister and in search of justice for her. Emma Suárez also participates in the cast.