Director Giancarlo Sánchez: ‘I am happy to be part of a new generation’

When Giancarlo Sánchez went to the film academy, he was surprised that everyone was so “collectively VPRO”. So: artsy in a similar way. “American films like Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society, with raw stories about crime and street life, was not on anyone’s radar there. “Everyone at my high school was talking about those movies. It was not looked at at the academy, very strange. I could go along with it further, I had Rembo & Rembo also seen.”

With his own work, the 36-year-old Sánchez telling stories and showing faces that are not often seen in Dutch film and TV.

For Santos he and co-creator Ashar Medina found those stories in the underworld of Rotterdam. The plot follows a young couple who are in danger of being drawn into the criminal activities of family and friends. Sánchez directed five of the eight episodes.

Director Giancarlo Sanchez.

In September, two months before the first episode can be watched, she won Santos already won a Golden Calf for Best Series at the Dutch Film Festival. Sánchez could use the recognition: “We do not have a large promotional machine behind us, if you compare it with the largest Dutch series, we have more of an underdog position.”

Mocro Mafia

Sánchez has had success as a director on two levels. On the one hand with exciting projects about street life, crime – such as Mocro Mafia, of which he made four episodes in the first season. And on the other hand with absurdist, all-against-the-wall comedy and sketches – Joardy Season. Those elements come together Santos . It is not a comedy, but it is inventive, surprising and volatile.

At the beginning of the series, main character Glenn (Yannick Jozefzoon) broke with a criminal past and tries to build a nice, legal life with his girlfriend Yola (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing). He starts working as a chef in a star restaurant. But through his good friend, the dealing Jermaine, he stays close to the criminal fire. Maybe he also finds that underworld a bit exciting, and maybe he gets the respect there that he doesn’t get in the kitchen. Romana Vrede (“Our very own Viola Davis”) is another factor as Yola’s mother and leader of a crime family.

“The idea for Santos Ashar and I had already arrived before we arrived Mocro Mafia worked,” Sánchez explains. “We thought: if that series is a success, then there may also be room for this.”

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Mocro Mafia became the big drama hit for RTL’s streaming service Videoland. After the first season of that series, Sánchez was given space to work on other projects, including the first Dutch Netflix series, the psychological horror series Ares.

Santos shows Rotterdam with various cultures, smells and colors. But, the director quickly says, that diversity should not be seen as a political statement. “First of all, it is an exciting family drama with crime. There is now slowly a new generation behind the controls and I am happy to be part of it. And yes, I want to mine show reality and not the reality as presented in other Dutch productions. For me, life doesn’t look like it does in series like Adultery or Penoza.”

Santos is a series with a largely black cast and a lot of crime. Isn’t that a stereotype? “We will certainly receive that criticism: ‘Another thing about crime.’ But when you make a series about street culture, crime is present. This is what we see and hear, this is what people have experienced. I don’t feel called to present viewers with a utopia.”

Adison dos Reis as Nando and Ron Helena as Edson.

The conversation turns to Martin Scorsese, who was often blamed for portraying the criminal life in films like Goodfellas romanticized too much. “What makes Scorsese so attractive is that he gives perspective to the less fortunate,” says Sánchez. He wanted to do something like that too. “The added value of Santos is that it does not follow the perspective of a crime journalist or the morality of an upstanding citizen who condemns or revels in criminal activity. It follows the criminal characters, also people of flesh and blood.

“In addition, films or series should not be a moral test. I don’t need a check from the master. People want to be on the edge of their seats. It goes to the core Santos about the oldest Western-like things: loyalty, the question of what is right and wrong.

“I don’t want to go into it too much, but my father was a criminal. And I think you can use a crime story to show how something like that works. We see Santos no one-dimensional characters. They are people with their own norms and values. I like ambiguity, I like to push and pull a bit.”

It sounds like Mocro Mafia in Rotterdam, but Santos has a significantly different focus, Sánchez assures. “Bee Mocro Mafia the basic principle is ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. That is about the hopelessness of life in the drug world.” Of Santos he and the other makers wanted to focus more on the characters – in the style of director John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood). “As a teenager I thought it was exciting that there was a gun on the cover of that DVD. But when I watched, I was surprised: the film was about mutual relationships and how the characters relate to society. You got more than that gun. And that is something that makes you think as a teenager. I hope our series can do something similar.”

New faces

In addition to experienced players such as Yannick Jozefzoon (Cop) and Romana Vrede and a few well-known heads such as Jack Wouterse (All Stars), many new faces were chosen, sometimes without acting experience. For example, hip-hop artist Vic9 (Quivaughn Joel Jordan) plays a major role as Jermaine. “It’s a risk and you take it. Directors are sometimes portrayed as magicians, puppeteers who can push actors’ buttons. I think there is less magic in it than you think. Just like a good football coach, it’s all about trust.

Dutch series are getting better and better, says Sánchez. But there is still a time problem. Everything has to be done quickly: there is little to no rehearsal time, and as few expensive shooting days as possible. “BNNVARA and Topkapi Films fortunately gave us a little more space than average. We had a rehearsal period, which you don’t often have. We started talking and rehearsing in Rotterdam-West. In addition to being an artist, Vic9 is also a father and jeweler. He is more responsible in real life than his character. Every now and then he would say, “That action is really stupid of Jermaine.” And then we started talking about that. We had the time to explain where the drama came from, so that everyone could participate in the process with conviction.”

There was encouragement in the report of the Golden Calf jury: that is daring Santos shows new headlines. Sánchez: “And that is completely true, there is no Barry Atsma in this series. While, I would really enjoy making something with Barry Atsma. Maybe that’s something for a second season.”

Santos: from Thursday, November 9 on NPO3, 8:30 PM. From then on, the entire season will be on NPO Plus.