A Murder Mystery About a Bear Heads to Spanish Screens on 10 December
A murder mystery in which the victim is a bear will premiere on Movistar Plus+ on 10 December. The Spanish pay-TV and streaming service announced the date on 21 October, and the series is called Matar a un oso, or Killing a Bear in English.
The story is built on a real case. According to Variety, the victim is a Pyrenean brown bear called Cachou. Cachou was poisoned with anti-freeze in April 2020, during Spain's COVID confinement. His death led to what Variety reports as the first criminal investigation in Spain and Europe into the killing of an animal.
Bears were brought back to the central High Pyrenees from Slovenia in 1997, as part of a European Union project. Variety describes the series as a fable that uses the conventions of genre drama to look at violence that grows out of bitter disputes over how people and bears can share the same land.
The show is written and created by brothers Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo. Jorge also lead-directed it. The pair made Crematorio, a 2011 series produced for Canal+ España. They are associated with Kubik, a company owned by the French studio TF1, and the series is produced in collaboration with Kubik Films.
Nora Navas plays Lola Barrera, a judge from Barcelona. Eduard Fernández also appears in the cast, according to Variety. Filming took place in Catalonia's Aran Valley, a mountain valley in the north-east of the region.
The series is co-produced by Movistar Plus+ and ARTE France, the French arm of the Franco-German culture channel ARTE. Movistar Plus+ also has a working partnership with ARTE France on other shows, including Querer, Anatomy of a Moment and La Mesías. Variety notes that ARTE France either bought or co-produced those titles.
Earlier this month, Killing a Bear was put forward as a Spanish candidate in the original crime category at Mipcom, the television trade fair held in Cannes. Mipcom is where broadcasters and producers buy, sell and pitch programmes to one another.
Before the December date, the series will have its world premiere at the 71st Seminci, a film festival in Valladolid, according to Movistar Plus+.
For viewers, the key details are simple. The series arrives on 10 December, it is a Spanish crime story, and its central victim is an animal whose death was a real event. Movistar Plus+ has not yet said how many episodes the series will have.
