Miren is a woman from Bilbao who has been married for decades to her husband Íñigo, with whom she has two children, Aitor and Jon. One day, she leaves the marital home, asks for a divorce and denounces her husband for continued rape, initiating a process that will “break” that family… although perhaps that family was always broken.
After winning the Goya for best new director for the wonderful ‘Cinco wolves’, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s next step came in the form of an assignment for Netflix, the romantic comedy ‘Eres tú’, in whose script he did not even intervene. For this reason, his second “real” step and for which there was really expectation was ‘Querer’, a series for Movistar+ that can be seen in full for a few weeks, and that on this occasion he does write, together with Júlia de Paz and Eduard Sola .
‘Querer’ begins with Miren’s decision, and explores the judicial and personal process that unfolds from there, especially from her point of view, but also from that of her children who do not know which option is more terrifying: believe that your mother is lying, or that she is telling the truth.
Ruiz de Azúa once again demonstrates his good hand for directing in a series that plays from its title with the two meanings that this verb can have, and that poses a double question: what does it mean to really “want” to do something, and what does it mean? It is “truly loving” someone. ‘Querer’ addresses the questions that can arise in a silence, and how it can be taken as an affirmation when it is not. Íñigo assumes that his wife loves him instead of reflecting on what is behind his silences, and Íñigo assumes that his wife loves him instead of reflecting on what is behind his silences (or refusals that become silences so as not to complicate the things). In contrast to that, that very apt moment in the last episode in which Miren reads what is behind Aitor’s silence, what he wants to tell him but doesn’t know how, or if it’s too late.
Nagore Aranburu is magnificent in a role that, as we say, focuses on silences, but the work of Miguel Berneardeu is also to be praised, who keeps his mouth shut from time to time, giving life to the most careful character after his protagonist. Further away are the always reliable Pedro Casablanc, Iván Pellicer and, above all, Loreto Mauleón, all three weighed down by a rather broad-brush character construction, something that is also present at times in the script, and that weighs down what Otherwise it is a fairly sober story. Maybe too much.
Because there also seems to be an imposed aura, a constant intention of wanting (jé) to be a “serious” series. The feeling is similar to many other film directors who set out to make a series with the intention of demonstrating that “a good series is like cinema”, and where in the end the result is, yes, a good series, probably impeccable at all times. technical level, but something is missing. ‘Querer’ is “more of a long movie than a series”, that condescending label that for some people is a positive thing. This does not mean that, as we say, it contains great moments, and is another interesting step in Ruiz de Azúa’s career, but it does distance her (in my opinion) from the top of the national podium this year, having works like ‘See You in another life’, ‘The New Years’, ‘The Lawyers’ or ‘The Long Shadows’.
