Okupas

everything is excellent in this serie, if you have the chance you cannot miss it. 4 young man with different backgrounds merge in the same house and have to face new experiences living in a stolen house, being prosecuted by the police and other gangs. The serie consists of 11 episodes.

Set in Argentina in the year 2000, under a deep crisis resulting from the convertibility model initiated by Carlos Ménem and continued under the government of Fernando De la Rúa, the only thing left for the Argentine middle class to ignore the impoverishment, unemployment and social conflict in the country was television as an escape route. Chiquititas in the afternoon, Tinelli and Gasoleros at night, and Mirtha Legrand on Sundays. But every day, marginality grew, the pockets of the popular classes were shrinking, and capital flight was beating like the heart of the rats of those who took the benefits of One to One. Okupas appeared, precisely, to squat that only space of comfort that was available to the ostentatious and aspirational class in a devastated country. Okupas is the reflection of an excluded majority that was deprived of a decent home, a job or any future in a system that not only left them to their fate, but did not guarantee them anything, and took everything away from them. An excellent story that narrates the misadventures of a middle class young man, frustrated with the moment he is living in his life, decides to become corrupt and get to know the depths of social marginality: gangs, guns, drugs, alcohol, violence of all kinds. Friendship unites four young people who have fallen by the wayside of the system, and they will seek not only to survive the marginality, but also to survive themselves as a group.

Ricardo (Rodrigo de la Serna) has let everyone down all his life, after dropping out of medical school, his cousin Clara has entrusted him in looking after an old apartment that is part of the family 'no quilombos' she orders but does Ricardo listen? When has he ever so the drama begins.

He doesn't want to live alone so brings his old school friend along 'Negro Pablo' who is a lot more streetwise than Ricardo along the way, they bring in rolinga Walter and Chiqui along to keep each other company. There doesn't seem to be a calming influence amongst the four as they get into one scrape to another with Ricardo getting far too out of his depth with the seedy underworld of Buenos Aires.

I watched the whole series in Peru where it was on Netflix, excellent acting and a great storyline, well worth a watch indeed.

I´M a movie director myself and I only can say this is the kind of story I would like to shot someday. There´s no middle term, you love it or you hate it, but reality is always there. When I see "Okupas", I´m seeing that someone is talking of something that lived in own flesh, was on that places, connected with that kind of people, and mixed with a sense of fiction and caracthers construction ends up in a total identification; you´re no longer an espectator you just live and experience from inside. Some people saw "Okupas" as a show of crime, an allegory of dope using, and lower class habits and ways of life, and said that they prefered to watch the 8 o´clock news to see what´s wrong with the country. To others there´s nothing better to deeply know about it without discriminate and then start a social change and a work of unification for a most acceptable kind of living... If you liked "Okupas", I can also recommend you: "Pizza, Birra, Faso"

(Pizza, Beer, Cigarrettes- Stagnaro), "Tumberos" (Adrián Caetano), "Un

Oso Rojo" (A Red Bear, Caetano), and "El Bonaerense" (Pablo Trapero).

What a gem.

The series addresses several themes, from the housing problem, passing through the youth's lack of perspective on life, to the chronic violence that comes from the brutal inequality typical of Latin American societies.

Without ever falling into moralism, far from trying to teach the public hypocritical lessons, it manages to amuse and entertain with a compelling story that have moments of comedy, action, suspense and a bit of drama.

With the remastering and release by netflix in 2021, I was finally able to watch the 11 episodes of this magnificent series, being able to understand the status it conserved through the years.

Watch it!