The Five Juanas: the Colombian telenovela arrived on Netflix as a telefilm
The hit melodrama that had a 1997 remake returns to the digital screen with new narrative twists.
Twenty-four years later, “Las Juanas” are back in a darker version of the hit Colombian soap opera: The Five Juanas: Colombian soap opera linked to Netflix in series format.
The new version of the 1997 novel, this time in serial format, premiered Wednesday on Netflix. It was written by Jimena Romero, who picks up the original story of her father, the late screenwriter and writer Bernardo Romero.
“It was sometimes terrifying and sometimes very liberating because I learned with my father, trained with him as a writer, worked with him until the day he died,” said Romero, who wrote the popular telenovela Mirada de mujer. with his father, but who had not attended Las Juanas.
The original story, in which five women discover that they are daughters of the same man, had elements of magical realism and a lot of humor. There is still magic in this through Juana Bautista (SofÃa Engberg), a Mayan shaman, but the turn is towards suspense, the writer’s favorite genre.
“I wanted to take her on a completely different path because the story begins with a mystery: there are five women who don’t know who their father is,” Romero said in a video interview from Miami.
As in the original, the Juanas share a desire, but while in the first version it took longer to solve the mystery of the bond that unites them, in the new, according to the current times, everything is cleared up quickly with a DNA test.
In the original, the father they find is fantastic, talkative, and sorry he hasn’t been in their lives. In this, Simón, the father of the Juanas played by Carlos Ponce, is very different and does not want to know about his new daughters.
Another thing Romero wanted to change is forgiveness for the sisters’ father Juanas, which in his opinion is too easy in the original.
“I didn’t want the father to apologize so easily,” Romero said. “The father came out as very well spared… he felt he had to be brought in to tell him ‘look at the consequences of your actions.”
The Juanas keep their names, but some have changed professions.
Juana Manuela ‘Manny’ (Zuria Vega) is not a boxer, she works in a strip club as a dancer, and Juana Valentina (Renata Notni) is no longer a saleswoman in an appliance store, she is now a journalist and deals with the problem of disappearance of women.
Juana Caridad (Oka Giner) is still a nun, even though she is no longer entirely innocent. Juana Matilde (Juanita Arias) remains a singer and Juana Bautista continues to be connected with energies and divination, but in this case according to the Mayan tradition.
The story has changed from Colombia to Mexico, although through Juana Matilde the Colombian side is still alive because her character, like the actress, is from that country.
Vega created her scenes by dancing pole dance, a feat that left her legs “all bruised”. The actress had practiced this type of stunt when she was 20, but with two children and 10 years later she felt like she was starting from scratch.
“It was all me, I didn’t have a double,” said Vega from Mexico City. “It was one of the challenges that this character had to go through and the truth is that since I stayed with him I became very obsessed that I had to reach him, because it was part of what the character lives.”
“It’s a super liberating practice and I really like it. No matter your weight, your height, your physique, it has to do with a thing of sensuality, of reconnecting with the feminine and it is something that Manny gave me, “she added.
Juanita Arias had already had musical scenes, but not to the level required by her portrayal of Juana Matilde, who has 11 songs in the series.
“I was preparing myself like a singer prepares. I don’t really sing as spectacularly as Juana Matilde sings, but I did attend my singing lessons, “said the Madrid actress, for whom, in addition to vocal technique, it was important to get feeling in her performance and put aside the pain when singing in front of an audience.
In Engberg’s case it was not difficult for him to enter the world of Juana Bautista, because it was something he already knew thanks to his mother.
“She was very mystical, she was a Mayan astrologer and did regressions and alternative therapies. From a very young age I have been very close to the faith “, said the actress from Mexico City.
Notni said trying to be a journalist without falling into clichés increased her admiration and respect for this profession.
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“It seems to me a profession that requires a lot of courage and really admirable to be in this constant search for the truth to expose it to society,” he said from Madrid. “I fell in love with that.”
In the series, Juana Valentina takes the lead among her sisters to search for her father, while Manny uses other means to reach him when he realizes he is closer than he imagines. The reality they face has dangers, such as femicide and sexual violence, but none of the Juanas stop.
“I feel that women already carry that chip, we are no longer shut up,” Vega said. “I think the show has these kinds of women… who move on, who survived.”
The first season of The five Juanas : the Colombian soap opera linked to Netflix in series format, consisting of 18 chapters, is now available on the Netflix platform.
