Netflix premieres "Welcome to Eden", filmed in Lanzarote

Utopia or dystopia? Sect or family? On a planet in the midst of a climate crisis, with young people increasingly dissatisfied with their lives and insecure about their future, “Welcome to Eden” arrives on Netflix this Friday, a new Spanish series filmed in Lanzarote that brings together a group of people on an island in response to the question: “Are you happy?”.

This question, with a clear and negative answer, is what makes a group of young people decide to join a journey that, for some of them, will change their lives completely. “They are not happy. If you are happy you don't go, you stay in Parla, in Donosti or in Teruel. But they all start from the basis that they are not satisfied with the life they lead”, Sergio Momo ("Elite"), one of the actors in the series, tells Efe.

He (Nico, his character) is not one of those who arrive new, as he has been in Eden for some time, the foundation led by a visionary couple, Astrid and Eric (Amaia Salamanca and the Argentine Guillermo Pfening), who have set out to create their own community in the face of the urgencies derived from climate change and the proximity of the point of no return.

“There is something of never-never land, of the lost boys. Something of picking up people with deficiencies, with traumas, who have not known how to work them or have not been able to”, adds Momo about the essence of this series that he defines as “a new color that you have never seen” and “a neoprene fantasy”, alluding to the blue uniform worn by the residents of the island.

Created and written by Joaquín Górriz ("Desaparecidos") and Guillermo López ("Atrapada"), “Welcome to Eden” is a series in which everything fits, full of thriller, romance and adventure. Produced by Brutal Media, the 8 episodes have been directed by Daniel Benmayor ("Xtremo") and Menna Fité ("Merlí"). In addition to Barcelona, the fiction has been largely shot in Lanzarote, where this particular Eden full of mystery has been recreated and in which not all that glitters is gold.

“We were looking to transmit this feeling that the world is gray, that there is less and less future, there is a pandemic, diseases, war... That feeling that to find a bright future and have a good time you have to find an island and escape. That is what the feelings of all the characters have in common. They have the need to escape and reach a kind of new beginning”, explains the creator Guillermo López to Efe.

One of the seeds of the creation of “Welcome to Eden”, says Joaquín Górriz, was the disastrous Fyre Festival, arriving at a party on an island “and waking up the next day with a huge disaster”. This is how Zoa (Amaia Aberasturi) will feel, one of the young women who arrives on the island fleeing her problems, accompanied by her friend Judit (played by the singer Ana Mena).

And also África, alias “Afrilux”, an “instagramer” in the midst of an existential crisis who is played by the Mexican singer Belinda. “They are vulnerable beings and (in Eden) they know that they can mold them because people who have a very defined personality, who are emotionally and mentally worked, it is difficult, but if you arrive in this case with six crazy people...”, the Mexican explains to Efe.

Vulnerable and hyperconnected to networks. This is how they choose them. “All this is born from social networks, from what they (those of the foundation) see. And I say, how many deficiencies have to be seen in an apparently happy and healthy profile to ask a person are you happy? We believe that we hide things in our networks, in our photos, but we don't”, explains Sergio Momo.

But, is the Eden foundation a sect or is it a saving family of lost souls? With its blue uniforms, its four-pointed star as a symbol and the representation of the Last Judgment of Joachim Patinir in “The Passage of the Styx Lagoon” as a symbol, everything seems to indicate that it is.

Not for Amaia Salamanca, and even less for Astrid. “I don't see it as a sect because does a sect call itself a sect? They describe it as a foundation. It is a foundation that my husband Eric and I have created, in which we do not intend to deceive anyone. We believe in a project and what we want is to show these people this wonderful project that we have”, says the actress.

Could such a project exist today? "It can exist perfectly. I think this is not a dystopia. As a character, I think I am doing good, a better world, where there are no struggles, where everything is ecological. I do a great job for a better world", explains Salamanca, without mentioning everything that is behind that Eden and that the plot will unravel.

Lola Rodríguez ("Veneno"), Maika, in the series, goes further: "In the end they want to have a sustainable system of life, that there is no inequality between people, it is where we should be going. Taking care of the planet we are on is one of Eden's greatest messages”, she says.

Begoña Vargas ("Alta mar"), Berta Vázquez ("Vis a vis"), Tomy Aguilera ("SKAM España"), Albert Baró ("Servir y proteger"), Diego Garisa, Dariam Coco, Irene Dev, Álex Pastrana ("Élite") and Berta Castañé ("Días de Navidad"), are some of the actors who complete the plot of this series that premieres worldwide on Friday.