MUNICH – Beta Film’s Galician drug trafficking series Fariña – Snow on the Atlantic is celebrating an ongoing ratings success on Spain’s Antena 3, continuously beating prestigious formats such as Telecino’s “Got Talent”. Prime-time winning episodes 1 – 4 were watched by 3.1 million viewers in average with an outstanding market share of 19.5 percent. The Atresmedia Original series by production powerhouse Bambú Producciones (Grand Hotel, Velvet) is based on real events and characters from Nacho Carretero’s non-fiction bestseller, which is more topical than ever after being taken off the market following a recent injunction for libel by the mayor of the city of Pontevedra, one of the real-life characters portrayed in the book.
Real-life drug baron Sito Miñanco, played in the series with tremendous intensity by Javier Rey (Velvet), was re-imprisoned on past February 5 in the vain of “Operation Mito”, a police raid against the drug trafficking and money laundering organization allegedly headed by him.
Galicia, Spain, in the 1980s. Life is slow and simple and the weather rough on the northern Spanish coast where most locals struggle to make a living. Sito Miñanco is one of them, but different. Neither shunning trouble with the police, his family or local “godfather” Terito, the young fisherman is willing to put his life on the line to get ahead. Against all odds, Sito’s determination and cunning eventually get him a seat at the table of Terito’s cigarette smuggling cooperative. But while the other clan members choose to hold still, Sito soon finds himself trafficking cocaine for Panamanian Ballesteros and a Colombian drug cartel and in the midst of a steaming affair with the beautiful Panamanian Odalys. Now a top-notch narco, Sito must face estrangement and separation from his wife Rosa, the visceral rage of unified mothers of local cocaine addicts and, above all, tenacious local cop Dario Costa and federal investigator Baltazar Garzon who can’t wait to bring him down.
Fariña – Snow on the Atlantic is an Atresmedia Original Series produced by Bambú’s Ramon Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdés. Beta Film presents the show at Cannes’ MIPTV in April.
