A good one and a bad one. The good news is that maybe “Palermo Division”, now available on Netflix, is the best comedy series of the year. The bad news is that we are only in February.
Santiago Korovsky, its creator, screenwriter, director and protagonist was Umbrella in “Almost happy”, assistant prosecutor in “The Kingdom”, Spider in “Porn and ice cream”. What does Korovsky have? An exquisite sense of absurd comedy and the ability to take it to unsuspected limits.
Leading a cast with fundamental actors such as Pilar Gamboa, Daniel Hendler, Marcelo Subiotto, Martin Garabal, Charo Lopez and Carlos Bellosobut full of new names like Hernan Cuevas, Valeria Licciardi and Renato Condori Sangallifaces a rare challenge, making comedy with risky topics like disability and minorities.
How to break stereotypes, be encouraged to tell other stories, sing a Chiquititas song that we all know and work with the sister in this hand-in-hand with NEWS.
News: In addition to being an actor, you have a degree in Communication Sciences from the UBA. Have you ever worked as a journalist?
Santiago Korovski: Yes I was a journalist for Public TV for a year in a program called “Tomate la tarde”, Martín Garabal was also there, he was the one who took me… and later I took revenge by making him act in “División Palermo” (he laughs). . As a thesis for my degree, I chose to direct a documentary about two inmates at the Moyano Neuropsychiatric Hospital and how the theater helped them to project themselves and think about an externation with all the difficulties that this entails, it is called “Going on stage”. One of those interns is Nilda Sindaco, who plays Betty in “División Palermo”, I was linked to her, she is a spectacular actress, I wrote her role especially so she could participate and she breaks it.
News: How did you manage to amalgamate high-profile actors like Pilar Gamboa and Daniel Hendler with several new faces and names that come from the alternative circuit?
Korovsky: The hand of Iair Said, who was in charge of the great casting and who also acts, was fundamental. We had a long search process because the intent was for most minority and disabled characters to be portrayed by someone who lives it from the inside. And it was difficult because actors with disabilities or belonging to minorities in general they don’t have many opportunities and that generates that they do not have as much experience in the profession. We worked with Nora Moseinco, who is my theater teacher, on the subject of interpretation prior to shooting. In addition, it was essential to find the right person for each role because they are characters that They go beyond their condition or origin. They are characters in all their complexity, we did not want to use the theme to perpetuate certain roles that are usually assigned to trans people or short actors, for example.
News: “División Palermo” uses comedy to show the infantilization and didacticism that exist in society regarding people with disabilities. They also messed with a topic that is rarely talked about, sexuality. Was it difficult to overcome that taboo?
Korovsky: It is true that in general there is a tendency to infantilize, to deny sexuality and to generate that idea of ”They are beings of light, examples of life”, and that at one point denies them as people, as subjects with contradictions and mischief.. Sex with people with disabilities is something that does not appear so much in fiction. One of our scriptwriters was Lucrecia Gómez, who is disabled, we had many meetings and she told me a lot about her experiences to outline the character of Sofía (Pilar Gamboa). She sent us videos of sexual positions so that we could understand how to represent that situation and its difficulties well. She also coached Pilar on how to use the wheelchair, she spent several months working with us. She advised us on the hottest moments and of course, she was the one who wrote the most sarcastic jokes! (series)
News: Disability is surrounded by many school of life phrases and the series explores other angles such as anger, mischief, evil and irony. Did you have doubts to encourage that?
Korovsky: It is that we all have evil, no one is spotless, no one is a saint. Lucrecia always went further in that sense, many times producers came who, with all the good sense in the world, doubted and asked: “Is this joke okay?”, but we showed it to other people who are in wheelchairs and they said “! At last! What is this to think that people with disabilities do not discriminate against others of the same condition? We all have prejudices, contradictions and moments where we do not work in the best way. Being able to get out of that place was important to make relationships more complex and get closer to a quite unknown, idealized reality..
News: One of the most idealized things is the fact of working with friends. In “División Palermo” that occurs, even Pilar and her partner Ignacio Sánchez Mestre also share the series. But her case is particular, because she can work with a friend, with her girlfriend… but what is it like to work with her sister?
Korovsky: With my sister? That’s good (we laugh) Working with her is spectacular and it’s also complex because how do you direct your sister? That is difficult for me, luckily I had the co-director Diego Núñez whom I asked for help so as not to neurotize Daniela further. Working with friends like Martín Garabal was also spectacular, he participated in the script and acted great. And it has its complications. because with a friend you have arguments, fights, but they locate you when you need it.
News: In the series there are very important moments where different songs from the 90s sound like “You do me so much good” that he sings precisely with Garabal. Or that other scene that seems to be taken from “Fire Against Fire”, but the soundtrack is “Tengo el corazón con agujeritos”, by Chiquititas. How did they come up with that?
Korovsky: Because the songs from outside were very expensive! (laughs) The first option to sing with Martín was “Careless whisper”, but there was no budget for that and sometimes the limits are good because they lead you to think of things closer to home and to songs from the nineties of our childhood or our youth that perhaps in some moment were classified as cheesy or fat and that are the ones that we all really know and remember. It suits humor to be able to travel to the 80s, to the 90s and return to songs that perhaps aren’t as canchera as we would have imagined at the time but have another closeness.
News: He was part of “Almost happy”, “Porn and ice cream” and now “Palermo Division”. Unlike the New Argentine Cinema, which is a phenomenon in its decline, can we talk about the New Argentine Comedy?
Korovsky: You know I don’t know what to tell you. Because on the one hand I feel that there is a whole tradition of Argentine humor, closer like Cualca or Cha Cha Cha and a little further away like Tato Bores. With the arrival in the world of the series, it begins to have a more cinematographic place and the possibility of crossing it with other genres arises, such as in this case the police. And it seems to me that other good things that come from the labels begin to happen there.
News: I don’t know if this is comedy or tragedy. I read somewhere that he lived in a studio apartment and that’s why he agreed to water the plants and take care of Martín Piroyansky’s apartment when he went on a trip. Did he manage to move?
Korovsky: The news is that thanks to this series after 10 years… I left the studio apartment! (applause). I was able to expand a little, but… listen to the detail: I moved under Piro. He lives in 11A and I moved to 10A. From taking care of his plants so much I found out that the lady downstairs wanted to sell, so now we are neighbors. Every once in a while I ring the bell and ask him if he understands a joke.
