While some Spanish filmmakers, such as Pedro Almodóvar, refuse outright to strike up professional deals with digital streaming platforms, others openly embrace this option, one example being Koldo Serra, who has just released 70 Big Ones [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Koldo Serra
scheda film] in cinemas and is now shooting various chapters of the new season of the series Money Heist for Netflix. “Thanks to them, there is plenty of work for audiovisual professionals in Spain,” the Basque helmer declared in a recent chat with Cineuropa.

A while ago, Isabel Coixet joined the latter camp, as she premiered her feature Elisa & Marcela [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], produced for Netflix, in the official section of the latest Berlin Film Festival. Now, for the first time, she has begun preparing a television series – for HBO Europe, through HBO España – which will be called Foodie Love. It will comprise eight 30-minute episodes in which the dinner table and the bed intertwine, scripted and directed by the Catalan filmmaker herself.

The fact that Coixet enjoys food and the rituals around it is clear for all to see, for example, in a famous – and controversial – scene from her movie Map of the Sounds of Tokyo [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], in which the body of a naked woman was used as a tray on which to serve Japanese delicacies, and in several adverts and more artistic works focusing on beer and set in restaurants. Likewise, the company owned by the director, who won three Goya Awards a year ago for The Bookshop [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], is called Miss Wasabi Films: as readers will no doubt be aware, wasabi is a staple condiment in the cuisine of the Land of the Rising Sun. Given all of this, it is hardly surprising that the filmmaker is now dedicating a project to one of her most cherished pastimes, openly combining it with romantic relationships, which her storylines are usually chock-full of.

As the director herself stated, “This series will be the fusion of two of my passions, love stories and food, through a tale of love, the lack of it, doubts and food, in which two characters meet, separate and come together again in a unique journey through cafes, bars and restaurants. Two timid beings, strong, at times tormented, at times unconcerned, fight to understand and surrender to each other. They are two people passionate about food, which is, at the beginning of the story, their common ground. Every single place that appears in the series and everything they eat is real. Their story is fiction. This series is nourished by all of the places I’ve visited and all of the food I’ve tried – and by many of the things I’ve experienced.”

According to the information provided by HBO España, its synopsis is as follows: the algorithm of a dating app for food lovers brings together the two main characters, a thirty-something girl and boy who get to know each other and embark on a relationship despite having their own doubts resulting from past relationship scars. Over several dates, they will discover where their tastes overlap and whether coincidences like their fondness for Japanese yuzu and their shared distaste for “foodie pretension” are enough to spark true love.

Foodie Love, produced by Miss Wasabi Films, will be shot over the course of the rest of this year and could potentially be aired next year on HBO Europe.