Movistar Plus’ “The Castle” (“El Castillo”) premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival in late September and received significant recognition as one of the festival’s standout titles. The series marks the debut as creator for Isabel Peña, who previously collaborated with filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen on projects including “The Beloved” and “The Beasts.” Peña partners with co-writer Eduardo Villanueva, with whom she worked on the 2021 series “Riot Police.”
The narrative is inspired by the novel “El Proxenata” by Mabel Lozano and follows three interconnected storylines set between 1999 and the early 2000s. Police inspectors Gerardo Liesa and Carmen Osés investigate illegal immigration of Colombian sex workers through Spain’s specialized unit. Claudia, a Colombian single mother portrayed by Valentina Vidal, travels to Spain out of financial desperation to pay for her son’s medical care. The third thread follows “El Suizo,” a criminal figure played by Raúl Arévalo who consolidates scattered roadside establishments into an organized network while employing sophisticated money laundering techniques.
Director Elena Martín emphasized that the series focuses on mechanisms of human trafficking rather than sex work itself. The production deliberately limits depiction of sexual content to two scenes, both presented from Claudia’s perspective and framed to avoid sexualization. The narrative illustrates the systemic debt bondage imposed on trafficked workers, with one sequence showing Claudia having generated substantial earnings while remaining indebted under her trafficker’s calculations.
The series was described by Spanish newspaper El Mundo as “the Spanish series of the year” and addresses what critics have characterized as normalized attitudes toward sexual exploitation within Spain. Peña cited the challenge of making the source material’s narrative more accessible by expanding perspectives beyond the original first-person account. The series is scheduled to be the subject of a masterclass on October 22 at Barcelona’s Serielizados festival, featuring Peña and Villanueva.
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