Directed by Joaquim Leitão and with a cast that includes, among others, Adriano Luz, Sara Barradas, Miguel Borges and Lourenço de Almeida, “Faro” is part of a “set in a district capital” and is the second of these works, after “Braga”, also broadcast about two years ago on RTP, Tino Navarro explained to Lusa news agency.

The producer justified the commitment to creating fictional series outside of major production centers, such as Lisbon, with the fact that the country is “underrepresented in cinema and audiovisual” and said that the authors’ goal is to “make a series that takes place in the present day, pure fiction, but that could only be set in the city”.

“In the story of Faro, the starting point is that there is an international real estate fund that wants to buy the entire island of Faro to build a luxury ‘resort’, but there is always someone who resists, in this case an old fisherman who has a restaurant on the beach and does not want to sell”, he said.

Tino Navarro also anticipated that “the fund hires a local, highly respected lawyer”, who has “a revolutionary past in the 25th of April” and has helped the island’s inhabitants to legalise occupations and clandestine houses, to “remove the last obstacles” to the purchase of the land where the real estate fund wants to install the project.

“This lawyer appears dead on a sailboat, tied to the mast, dressed in a sadomasochistic outfit. The PJ is taking charge of the incident and will investigate what happened and who killed him,” he added, stressing that there are several suspects and that, “in the end, it will be revealed who killed Abel Santos,” the role played by Adriano Luz.

Lusa also spoke to the actor, who said he agreed to participate in the project because it was directed by Joaquim Leitão, with whom he had already worked on a “remarkable” work, “Até Amanhã, Camaradas,” he noted.

“My character is a lawyer for a company that wants to build a ‘resort’ on the island of Faro. However, since this is Abel from Faro, most of the people on the island are childhood friends and he initially tries to convince them to sell. There is one who is more resistant, Zé Maria, played by Miguel Borges, and this is the first development of the character”, said Adriano Luz.

The actor said that the script then has “several layers”, such as the troubled relationship between the lawyer he plays and his son, who will later become involved with the character played by Sara Barradas, an actress with whom Lusa also spoke.

Sara Barradas considered that the series focuses on “current” issues, such as “easy money” as opposed to “preserving the environment”, and said that her character “will play a fundamental role in this counterpoint”, by leaving Switzerland, where she is an emigrant, to return to the island and help her father resist.

When asked about the experience of working in Faro to film for about two months, Sara Barradas described it as “quite positive” because she was able to make a series for RTP and work with director Joaquim Leitão and producer Tino Navarro.

“It was really good. And it was really good to work again with Miguel Borges, who had played my father 20 years ago in the film ‘Coisa Ruim’, by Tiago Guedes, and who played my father again 20 years later”, she recalled, praising her colleague’s work and humanity.

After today’s premiere, the series “Faro” will also have a second premiere in the Algarve city, on June 13, and will then be shown on RTP1 from the 16th, according to the producer.