Murder on the dancef loor...
How the heady days of Ibiza in the 90s became the back drop for a new thriller from the creator of Money Heist
IT was the party island for the second summer of love in 1989 and has continued in the same vein since. And although this year the clubs are closed and the sound of silence reigns on Ibiza’s beaches, it’s still going to be the focus of the summer for many, thanks to a much-anticipated Netflix drama, including Irish actor Barry Ward
among a stellar cast.
White Lines is the brainchild of Spanish writer Alex Pina, the creator of Money Heist which broke streaming viewership records — 34 million households watched one episode within its first week.
And for his next highly anticipated project, he has turned his attentions to the dark underbelly, not to mention the sun-drenched hedonism, of Ibiza.
Since the 1990s, thousands of Irish revellers flocked to the Spanish island for summers of sun, sea, sand and triple-distilled partying.
The scene has been a rich seam to mine for filmmakers, but Pina’s series White Lines has been one of the most anticipated Netflix offerAmid ings of the summer. A slick, stylish and taut crime series, White Lines tells the story of a superstar DJ, whose body is found in Ibiza two decades after his disappearance. His sister Zoe (played by Laura Haddock) returns to the island in search of answers, and finds herself venturing into an unfamiliar world of the Spanish Island’s criminal underbelly, as well as its world famous dance scene.
Daniel Mays, Angela Griffin and Marta Milans make up the cast of White Lines, which is produced by Left Bank Pictures, who produced The Crown: Dubliner Barry Ward plays Zoe’s Manchester-based husband, Mike.
Pina says that Ibiza was the perfect place to tell the story he wanted to write, a tale of that will be very familiar to many who holiday there.
‘We had the story of someone living in Manchester, living a slightly grey, monotone life, and suddenly she arrives in Ibiza and meets a world she wasn’t aware of in Manchester, and her mindset changes completely: the light, the music, the hedonism,’ Pina observes.
‘She rethinks all her life so we needed two poles in total opposition: Manchester, a city in darker, more oppressive tones, greyer, evidently because of the rain, the north, the industrial, and Ibiza, a Mediterranean city, hedonist, summery, and all the flavour of life, and instincts or feelings. I think this clash between those two worlds was ideal.’
NO doubt many Irish people will appreciate a nostalgic look-back at Ibiza’s most thrilling times. With electronic music dominating the White Isle, clubs like the 5000-strong Amnesia, Pacha and Ku were packed to the rafters with clubbers. The electronic music was up to 11 and the vibe, with a little chemical assistance was marked with openness, freedom and belonging.
‘I think the 90s was a very stimulating period in many places,’ says Pina. ‘It happened in music, it’s evident. ‘The 90s is also Ibiza’s golden age so I think the series talks also about that. One keeps very melancholy remembrances of one’s own youth; furthermore in Ibiza that time was golden, buzzing. I believe many people are going to feel this nostalgia but also nostalgia due to the summer, the Mediterranean, because the time we enjoyed in the past, when we were happy, that time always brings nostalgia.’
Born in Pamplona in Spain, 52year-old Pina only witnessed the Ibiza explosion at a remove.
‘I hardly knew Ibiza then so we had to research a lot,’ he admits. ‘But there are loads of documents and videos. Lots of celebrities visited Ibiza and many people who came through Ibiza in those years… and their adventures have been recorded. Regretfully I’d have loved to experience that Ibiza but back then I only went once.’
his research, Pina found out about the island’s criminal underworld: one that came to light for many Irish people in 2013 when 20year-old Dungannon native Michaella McCollum and Scot Melissa Reid was arrested in Peru attempting to smuggle cocaine in their luggage back to Ibiza, where they both lived.
‘It’s really a place with the highest concentration of expats from different countries,’ Pina observes. ‘It’s a place where clubs have long opening hours, there’s entertainment, people take drugs… not only that but many other things: there’s its hippy side, its liberal side, people practising yoga, people going to the beach…
‘There are many people who come to Ibiza and decide to stay, and an easy way forward is becoming a drug dealer. I think it’s an island with many temptations, that being one of them.’
Dubliner Barry Ward, last seen in a star turn performance in Irish
comedy Extra Ordinary, plays Mike, and Pina was excited to work with the actor.
‘The truth is, he added very important facets to the character,’ he explains. ‘By the end he had shown various aspects: on one hand, he had to be a husband in an ordinary family, almost normal from Manchester, but on the other hand, his emotions had to be very strong and he had to go through a powerful transformation arc when Mike goes to Ibiza.
‘That is, he had to have many elements and he has given us all of them. At times, we could see his humorous, emotional side, and at other times an antagonistic, confrontational side with other characters, and I think in all those moments, Barry’s work was very good.’
Working with an English-speaking cast had its challenges for Pina, whose first language is Spanish.
‘The scripts were originally written in Spanish, and an English writer and a translator adapted them into English,’ he reveals. ‘So everything was quite complicated. It was a difficult experiment, it’s an act of faith, but I think the results are very good, and one can see it in the series.’
White Lines was anticipated the world over, but the coronavirus lockdown has made Netflix even more central to people’s lives than it has been before. With the world’s attentions trained to the small screen, the timing of White Lines’ release could barely be better.
‘It allows us to display the Mediterranean light, the beach light, in a period when we’re living a wholly grey, dramatic, grave time.
‘And I really think that the series is a very nice window of sun, hedonism, it’s playful, the clubs — and even if underneath lies a rather dark story, the series’ window is cathartic,
‘I believe, right at this moment. People want to escape and I think the series provides escape.’
Yet in addition to the full-blown escapism that White Lines provides, there are some bigger questions being asked, too. ‘We believe that nowadays we must primarily entertain,’ Pina surmises. ‘On the surface the backbone of White Lines promises a playful series — but underneath lie some thoughts about the current lack of satisfaction regarding modern men and women living in a place where there are constant inputs of entertainment, having to face totally monotonous, boring lives. ‘[My] series are often like that. We try to create multi-layered characters and amusing series, but at the same time, the series are playfully explosive.’