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Shot in Andalusia, in historic spaces in Seville, the series, which began with the epidemic that devastated the Andalusian capital during the sixteenth century, focuses on this new release, in a city dominated by organized crime

The Seville European Film Festival has announced this Friday that it will host the absolute premiere of the second season of 'La Peste', the original fiction by Movistar+ in collaboration with Atípica Films, created by Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos and located in the fascinating 16th century Seville, as part of its 16th edition.

The mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, has revealed a surprise in the Seville European Film Festival, which for the first time will premiere a television production, within a special session at the Lope de Vega on Monday November 11, during which the audience will be able to enjoy the two episodes of the second season. The news made public during an event at the Espacio Santa Clara, which in fact, was the setting for some of the sequences of the first season, and in which the creators of the series, Patricia López Arnáiz, one of the leading actresses, were also present; As well as, Antonio Muñoz, delegate of Habitat Urbano, Cultura y Turismo; Isabel Ojeda, director of Culture of Seville City Council; José Luis Cienfuegos, director of the Seville Festival; José Antonio Félez, producer of Atípica Films, and Cristina Ramos, from the Original Production department of Movistar+.

The mayor recalled in the presentation that Seville is a city of filming, film industry, talent. "It is also home to one of the best festivals in Europe. And this year we wanted to unite it all more than ever with the international premiere of this great production 'La Peste', which features the city of Seville and its history as its main protagonist. This project is a reflection of the potential and quality of Andalusian cinema and there is no better setting for its premiere than the Seville European Film Festival, which this year reinforces its commitment to Spanish cinema".

After the success of the series' initial season, Movistar+'s first own fiction production and one of its most ambitious stakes, the long-awaited second part of the project created by Sevillians Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos places the spectator five years after the last major plague epidemic. In 'La peste' Season 2, Seville has managed to recover from the shock of this disease and lives days of prosperity thanks to the monopoly of trade with the West. However, the population continues to suffer from hunger and poverty and social dissatisfaction grows until it crystallizes in the birth of La Garduña, the organized crime that has taken control of the city.

The latest season has six episodes of 45 minutes each, the first two have been directed by Alberto Rodriguez and the remaining four by David Ulloa. Its premiere on Movistar+ will be on November 15th, so Sevillian audiences will be the first to enjoy it. Filmed entirely in Andalusia and mostly on natural stages, this television proposal maintains the production dimensions of the first and has had a team of more than 500 people and the participation of more than 2,000 extras.

According to José Luis Cienfuegos, director of the Seville European Film Festival, these screenings "are above all a celebration and tribute to two filmmakers who are masters of narration and the development of characters such as Alberto Rodríguez and Rafa Cobos, and the recognition of all the professionals involved in this project, a demanding challenge that proves the impressive growth and creative maturity of the Andalusian audiovisual industry. 'La Mano de la Garduña' is not just the second part of 'La Peste', it is also the representation of the ambition to continue telling, and to opening new doors to our history". Likewise, Cienfuegos has highlighted that in this edition the Festival will premiere other types of formats, such as Mark Cousins' film essays in the monumental 14 hours of 'Women make film. A new road movie trough cinema' or the screening in the Cinephiles of the Future section of 'Gender Derby', recorded in a vertical format, the same way as the stories in Instagram.

In the words of Alberto Rodríguez, director of the first two episodes of 'La Peste', both of which will be screened at the Seville Festival, "the second part of the plague represents the struggle for control of the city of Seville between the official and visible power, the town hall and the guild of thieves, the underworld, the Garduña". The acclaimed Sevillian filmmaker, responsible for productions such as 'La isla mínima' and 'Grupo 7', explained that for the team "it is an honour to premiere 'La peste 2' in an international festival such as Seville. Moreover, for us it is particularly exciting that the series is premiered here, because the city is the main character in the story. We're referring to a previous time, but the capital itself".

As Rafael Cobos, showrunner of this second season explains, Mateo, played by Pablo Molinero, and through whose eyes we could contemplate the Seville of the 16th century, is now recovered, has known the New World and has become an adventurer: "He has recovered the desire to live, and we will discover from next to him a more luminous Seville, although equally or more corrupt, where the mafia, controlled by La Garduña, enables us to add more action to the series, to make it choral. Like an Elliot Ness, Mateo will fight side by side with Pontecorvo, the city's new Assistant, against organized crime".

A dialogue between 16th century Seville and today's Seville

Cobos, who assumes the role of showrunner in this second season, explains that the identity they wanted to give to the series "has to do with subverting the archetype of the historical serial and turning it into a modern and fast-paced thriller that, through action and adventure, allows us to establish a dialogue between 16th-century Seville and contemporary Seville". According to Cobos, this is a much more unadorned season than the first: "We have opted to make the female characters more powerful and put an end to the terrible adage of the time: No broken sword, no trotting woman. ‘La Peste' was born in Seville to talk about Seville. And it is an enormous privilege that it is also here, in our city, and in the heart of its fantastic Festival, where it is shown for the first time to the public".

José Antonio Félez, producer of Atípica Films, has announced that the second season of 'La peste' is "a project full of emotion and adventures, in which our characters will have to face a powerful criminal organization, La Garduña. Seville continues to be the protagonist in this new season, a dazzling city full of contrasts that never ceases to surprise us with its countless facets". Félez has agreed with the rest of the team when it comes to pointing out "the enthusiasm of celebrating the premiere in the framework of the Seville Festival, for the importance of the event at a national and international level, and for being over the years one of the most important events taking place in the city. It is, in a way, corresponding to everything that the city and its citizens have given us".

From November 8, Seville will become the capital of European cinema thanks to the arrival in the city of the best directors at the time, who will screen their latest productions, films that have just triumphed in the best festivals in the world and that, for the most part, will be seen for the first time in Spain in the context of the event. Directors such as Roy Andersson, Abel Ferrara, Marco Bellocchio, Albert Serra, Robert Guédiguian, Bruno Dumont, Jessica Hausner, Pietro Marcello, Eloy Enciso and João Nicolau, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Elia Suleiman, Nadav Lapid, Teona Strugar, Corneliu Porumboiu, Justine Triet, Valentin Vasyanovych and Lorenzo Mattotti will be in the official section. In addition, the Festival will dedicate two cycles to two great directors, Joanna Hogg and Lene Berg, and will continue in its line of betting on new talents in film directing.

The Seville Festival is an initiative of the Seville Institute of Culture and the Arts (ICAS), dependent on Seville City Council, and has the support of Europa Creativa MEDIA and the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA). 

In its 16th edition, the Festival is supported by Fundación Banco Sabadell, an institution founded in 1994 with the aim of stimulating excellence and fostering knowledge of culture. Its objective is to promote dissemination, formation and research activities in the educational, scientific and cultural fields, as well as to encourage and support young talent.

Born in 2004, the last edition of the Seville Festival brought together a total of 76,162 spectators - beating its historical record - and 96,348 participants in other activities programmed by the festival, as well as, 232 projected films, of which 152 were absolute premieres in Spain.