A building in an industrial estate in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid) has become the headquarters of the Tax Agency for a few days. In reality, it is a block where the production of Sky bluea series that Movistar Plus+ produces in collaboration with 100 Balas (The Mediapro Studio) and that will premiere in the last quarter of the year, has rented a space to transform it into what could be the office that the Treasury has on Guzmán el Bueno street in the capital. A grey space, with grey furniture, where an activity takes place that, seen from the outside, seems just as grey. That was precisely the challenge that the scriptwriter Diego San José wanted to face: to narrate an exciting thriller which takes place in “one of the greyest environments in our culture.” “I find it stimulating that the story is born where stories apparently do not come from,” he said in mid-April, sitting in the office of his protagonist.
This story, with echoes in reality, has as its protagonist a grey character, Sara Santano, a tax inspector about to retire who has dedicated her entire life to her profession. She is charged with the inspection of a very famous Latin singer for possible tax evasion, for which she must investigate whether she has resided in Spain for half the year plus one day. At stake are 20 million euros for the Spanish public coffers.
For San José, it is curious how the tax inspectors, “an elite body,” are socially “a kind of pariah.” “The tax inspector manages to bring the two Spains together, everyone is suspicious of him. And it is curious, because we should all adore them because their work depends on making things better for all of us, they redistribute wealth,” says the creator of the series sitting at the table of his protagonist. On a wall, a large blackboard shows all the days of the year with post-its of different colors to visually identify the days that the inspector knows that the singer was in Spain, those that she has confirmed that she was not there and those about which she has doubts. “We start from the tax office so that there is a thrillerwith the twists and surprises that the story of a detective facing a kidnapper would have, but here there is no kidnapping, there is an apparent tax fraud, and there is no murderer, there is an artist who, if it is proven that she lives in Spain, there is a great loot to enjoy,” he adds.
Carmen Machi is in charge of giving life to the grey woman that is Sara. “She is grey to people, she doesn’t feel that way. She has neglected herself as a woman because she hasn’t had time either. She is hidden from the light, all day long devoted to her work. I see her as an admirable woman, tremendously smart, cultured… I wish I could be,” she says after going through makeup and already with the costume and wig that turn her into this diligent civil servant.
Several elements of the series help to highlight the dull environment in which Sara moves and the contrast with the bright and spontaneous world of Celeste, the Latin artist played by the Mexican Andrea BayardoMarta Murillo, head of the clothing department, visited the Guzmán el Bueno area where the tax inspectors move around and confirmed that the stereotypes correspond to reality. There she found, for example, a lot of zipped jumpers and shirts, and a colour palette that ranges from grey, navy blue, brown and green.
Clothes will be essential to show the evolution of the characters. In the case of Sara, she always wore skirts, but from a certain point on she switched to trousers. For Celeste, the team of the series has had to recreate her whole life, which will be reflected, for example, in the magazines and photos that the inspector collects. “We started with things that were a bit uglier, more chavs, because the evolution of these stars is like that, they start without advisors and doing what they can with their clothes. Then they have more money, more advisors and everything is more elegant and less obvious,” says Murillo. For the Latin singer’s wardrobe, the costume designer was inspired by Shakira (the most obvious reference for the character, given her problems with the Treasury) but also by other artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Dua Lipa and, above all, Beyoncé.
The art team also delved into the world of the Treasury. “In the script, Sara is a grey person, and we had to reinforce that with the sets. But really, the people at the Treasury are the happiest in the world,” says Marc Pou, art director. The protagonist’s house is classic, “without great artistic or design pretensions, it has remained the same since the seventies,” he describes. Pou was inspired by the most conservative political class in Madrid. For the offices, he visited the Treasury delegation in Barcelona, where he asked everything he needed to recreate his world as faithfully as possible. It is taken care of down to the smallest detail, and when you walk through the fictional office, you find mouse pads, desk calendars or posters of activities of the union of technicians of the Treasury Ministry or folders provided by the Tax Agency. Thanks to a special permit they have been able to reproduce the logo, which is very present. “In a real office there aren’t that many logos, but our viewers won’t know we’re there if they’re not very visible,” Pou explains.
Although the series has Diego San José behind it (Vote Juan, Eight Basque surnames), Carmen Machi says that “it is the furthest thing from a comedy that you can imagine, even though it has situations that can lead to laughter.” “There are no jokes. There are no misunderstandings, no gags or clumsy characters,” says San José. “It will be funny because it will be done very seriously.” Sky blue it’s a thriller both in the script and in its image. Director Elena Trapé, responsible for the six half-hour episodes, has found her visual references in the thriller classic. It also points out Spotlightset in a newsroom in the early 2000s, and for the character of Carmen Machi he mentions the Chilean film Glory“because in parallel to this thriller There is the intimate journey of this woman, which begins in a very grey and sad place, a woman who feels that nothing else will happen to her in life, and through the investigation and the contrast with Celeste, she feels exciting things again,” she says.
One of Diego San José’s goals is that if a tax inspector sees the series, he or she will find his or her world and work reflected correctly. The scriptwriter wanted to meet with real tax inspectors to ask them about their daily lives and some curiosities, but the fact that almost no tax inspector identifies themselves as such publicly made the task difficult. “They say they are civil servants or that they work for the State, but they don’t say they are tax inspectors to avoid questions or to avoid generating suspicion,” he explains. He managed to speak with three of them, who have also served as advisors on details such as what the office would be like or the appropriate terms in the dialogues. Carmen Machi highlights the role of one of them who has resolved specific doubts. “They are very happy, they have never had a series. They have read the scripts and they like it because what we say is that you have to pay taxes accordingly,” says the actress.
Now that you know more about their world from the inside, has this series changed Machi’s image of tax inspectors? “No,” she says, laughing. “They become obsessed, which is normal, it is their job, but as taxpayers we all feel what we feel. I do what I have to do, but I recognize that it is an entity that is suspicious. What has changed for me is seeing that there is a life behind these people. My thoughts about tax inspectors have not changed, but they have changed about the women who may be inside them. Now I am intrigued by who the public will go with, whether Sara or Celeste.”
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