Tamar Novas in Chapapote. Photo courtesy of Netflix
A village dodges an environmental catastrophe, then finds out being spared can strand it in a different way. That’s the darkly funny idea behind Chapapote, a new Netflix comedy from director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo starring Tamar Novas. Netflix announced on Nov. 3 that filming has started.
Key Takeaways
- Chapapote is produced by Bambú Producciones and set during the 2002 Prestige oil-spill crisis in Galicia, Spain.
- Novas leads a cast that includes Carlos Blanco, María Vázquez, Alexandra Jiménez, Irene Arcos and Fer Fraga, with a special appearance by Antonio Durán “Morris.”
- Sánchez Arévalo co-wrote the script with Ramón Campos, whose original idea the film is based on. Campos also executive produces.
- Netflix has not announced a release date.
The Full Story
The fictional town of Agarimo has one lucky beach: oil from the Prestige disaster never washes ashore. But its residents still can’t fish. Their neighbors get aid and a wave of volunteers, while Agarimo gets neither. So the townspeople come up with an appalling fix: if help only goes where the oil is, maybe they should bring the oil to their own shore.
It’s a fictional scheme, not a claim about what happened during the real disaster, and it turns a tragedy into a comedy about who gets noticed when resources run short. Netflix points to Novas’ work in The Sea Inside and Gangs of Galicia, and to Sánchez Arévalo’s Seventeen and Band Together. Cinematographer Rafa García and composer Federico Jusid round out the announced team.
The Social Conversation
The Prestige tanker broke apart and sank off Galicia in November 2002, leaving one of Spain’s worst environmental disasters along its northwest coast. Setting a comedy in that moment is a bold swing, and the reversal at its center, the town that looks lucky becoming the town nobody sees, is what makes this more than a routine filming announcement.
