There are (few) bold series that dare to open in a rough, almost off-putting fashion, ready to scare off an impatient viewer hooked on the easy, instantly gratifying stimuli of social media and the algorithm. Yakarta, created by Diego San José, presented as one of the Special Screenings at the 70th Seminci and premiering on 6 November on Movistar Plus+, demands patience, time and perseverance of its audience. Its first two episodes are a tough watch, its characters are hardly attractive or readily empathetic, and both its premise and setting are worlds away from Temptation Island.

But from the superb episode three onwards, once the central roles have been fully established, a hidden charge detonates and the rocket lifts off for good. It becomes not only one of the season’s most original Spanish series (awards will surely follow in the coming months), but – best of all – it confirms the fertile creative romance between San José and director Elena Trapé, which already bore its first fruit with Celeste [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Diego San José
fiche série] – another series whose lead would never be invited to a fashion show.

Yakarta bears the name of a destination we never see on screen, yet it symbolises the utopian, ideal state its protagonists yearn to reach – a difficult objective, but the dream of touching it keeps them alive. The plot revolves around Joserra (to whom an all-in Javier Cámara lends melancholy and pathos), a middle-aged former Olympic badminton player who took part in Barcelona ’92 and now teaches PE at a state school in Vallecas. Divorced, a habitual bingo player, a choir singer and the father of a girl with whom he doesn’t have much of a relationship, he believes he has found the gem that could turn his life around: Mar (played by Carla Quílez, the whirlwind who won the Silver Shell for Best Performance at San Sebastián for Motherhood [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Pilar Palomero
fiche film]), a teenage player who could be his ticket to fulfilling his dream of competing in Jakarta, where former players are treated like stars. But Indonesia’s capital is a long way off, especially for two strangers like them, so they must learn to put up with each other as they embark on a journey through dingy guesthouses, down-at-heel sports centres and service stations, taking them through the towns of Totana, Ponferrada and Torrelavega.

Comprising six episodes of 32 minutes each (one directed by Cámara himself and another by Fernando Hierro-Delgado, a co-writer alongside the creator and Daniel Castro), set in desolate, grey, hardly photogenic places, with a score by the acclaimed Lucas Vidal and supporting turns (not least that of David Lorente) worthy of the leads, the series tackles – with ample skill, restraint and sensitivity – themes such as the drive to succeed, unhealed wounds, internalised pain, addictions and the acceptance of defeat. It does so through the odyssey of this impossible duo of opposites, where the adult may be more of a (broken) child than the adolescent.

Yakarta is an original Movistar Plus+ series, produced by 100 Balas, Buendía Estudios Canarias and The Mediapro Studio, which also handles its international sales.