São Paulo
Creator of “Rebelde Way” (which inspired the various versions of “Rebelde”), “Floricienta” (which won the Brazilian version “Floribella”) and “Chiquititas”, Cris Morena is considered the Latin queen of teen and youth dramas in the audio-visual. Now, the 66-year-old Argentine is going through a new trial by fire with “Te Amar Dói”, a series that arrived on HBO Max last Thursday (17).
Like his previous hits, the series is intertwined with dozens of musical numbers. This time, however, the backdrop is more tense and real. Juan Gris (Roberto Aguilar) is a young man from the periphery who struggles to survive while the future of his neighborhood is threatened by the project of a large construction company.
In love with music, he ends up having his destiny crossed by Lola Robles (Mar Sordo), a young woman from the upper class who seeks to rise in her career as an actress. Due to a mismatch, she is late for the presentation of her musical, and Juan, who has just stolen a kind of buggy, agrees to give her a ride. Just by looking at them, the two fall in love and begin to fight for their dreams, threatened by an uncertain love.
The romance, as in most of the author’s previous projects, is what gives color to “Te Amar Dói”. According to her, young people haven’t changed in the last 10 years, when she launched her last work for television, and, much less, people’s relationship with love. “The difference is that now it doesn’t matter so much if you fall in love with a woman, with another boy or with another gender. Love always prevails. And who doesn’t seek love? If someone says they don’t want to love, that they don’t want to feel nothing, I already suspect that person”, says Cris Morena, in a video interview with F5.
Music also plays a social role in the plot, starring marginalized young people “either by society or by love”. For Cris, this is the big click that the name of the series gives to the viewer. It’s not the love itself that hurts, but what you have to face in order to grow. “When children learn to walk, they will fall many times, and that can hurt. But if you don’t try for fear of falling, you will never learn to walk”, she explains.
With 13 episodes in the first season, the project ended up working as a personal rebirth for the author. Romina Yan, actress and daughter of Cris, died in 2010, aged 36, victim of a cardiac arrest. “That’s life, made up of many joys and some sadness. In my case, I fell many times, I got up many times”, she evaluates. “Life isn’t always rosy. And I’m very grateful for all the falls, because I always got up, and that’s the most important thing.”
If “Te Amar Dói” will repeat the success of other works by Cris Morena, time will tell — not least because she says she never quite knows what makes her creations reach that status. “I’m always asked that (laughs). I don’t have any secrets. I really believe, without any fuss, that my projects work out because I do them with enthusiasm, with my heart and with so much desire that they end up working. My things are well done and I put so much passion that there is no way to go wrong”, he says.
