El Internado (The Boarding School Black Lagoon)

First there came the light, then came the crimes.

This is the sentence that explains the macabre events that happen in El Internado (Boarding school Black Lagoon). The students see rabbits with two heads, dead animals and a monster that lives in the woods and has taken a liking to Paula. Paula is the key, the girl who most symbolizes the ideal master race. The blond hair and the blue eyes are traits revered by the German Nazis who have cloned her in the image of another little girl and have made her the guinea pig to find a cure to an unknown disease.

It is Nazis versus Jews in this Spanish drama (not Mexican!) about a boarding school deep in mysterious woods where inexplicable events happen. Every episode reveals a part of the big secret. Like the broken pieces of a photograph that slowly reveal a picture and just when you think the picture is complete the cracks between the pieces end up being a part of the image. This is El Internado and this is why you have to keep watching.

In the first season we are introduced to Maria. She has escaped from the house of crazies to find her son in an elite boarding school located in some Spanish woods. She arrives and befriends the manager, Hacinta, who has her own secrets. We are then introduced to the teenagers who are destined for hell.

Ivan Noiret (Yon Gonzalez): An incredibly sarcastic guy, he is the son of one of the major donors to the boarding school and so he does whatever he wants thinking that he cannot be kicked out. He is arrogant and the typical bad boy. His humor is deliciously hilarious, but underneath he is a vulnerable young man trying to receive love from his physically and mentally abusive father, Jacques Noiret. He is Maria's son.

Carolina "Carol" Leal Solis: She is a curious and tenacious girl who stands up for what she believes in. She is incredibly brave. In the beginning, she is Ivan's girlfriend, but ends up falling for Marcos.

Marcos: He is Paula's brother. He is protective and very brave and he is in love with Carol. In the beginning there is some animosity between Ivan and him, but then they become best friends.

Julia: She is the bad girl to Ivan's bad boy and together they are John Travolta and Olivia Newton Jones with the motorcycle and everything. She can see ghosts and is having an affair with her step-father. Her mother abandons her in the boarding school thinking her daughter can be disciplined out of her whorish tendencies. She has a hate relationship with Ivan, which really turns out to be sexual tension and they fall in love.

Roque: Part of the group and best friend of Cayetano. He falls in love with Julia, but she likes Ivan. You will not like this guy.

Cayetano: A part of the group in season 1, then not so much. You will not care about this guy.

Paula: She is Marcos' 6-year-old sister. She is experimented upon and is the key to everything. She has an IQ of 152 and is very honest. Paula has a best friend named Evelyn and together they get into hilarious hijinks due to the misguided advice offered by the older people to a couple of six-year-olds that take everything literally.

Plot:

Paula and Marcos' parents are killed in a boating accident. They then find out that this is not true while they investigate the mysterious events that happen at the school.  They find a mysterious photograph from the 1940's of a little girl that looks just like Paula and had the same IQ. They discover that the school used to be an orphanage where kids used to die, but that later turned up with different names and with no memory of the orphanage.

This crazy roller coaster of a drama can only be described as good writing. Everything is developed so fluidly that you can clearly see the master plan the writers had in mind. There is nothing left unturned. Every answer is answered slowly, but surely. Yet, it still leaves you stumbling from the path you thought you were walking on.

In the beginning of this drama I had no idea this was something so realistic and horrific as a typical Nazi operation(with creepy doctors and everything). I thought this would be about magic, I thought this could be a dream, I thought this could be a ghost world, but I never in a million years understood what was happening until the Nazi flag was finally revealed to me in all its blood-red glory.

Directing:

I have never paid attention to this while watching dramas, but in this one it's so artistic I have to mention it.

The story takes place in a school where the kids range from 5-year-olds to 17-year-olds, excluding the adults. The director uses the school as the transition from character to character. Thus, the person behinds the camera chooses to follow the person who becomes the most interesting in a particular moment. Maybe Ivan is coming down the stairs and then at the same time Maria is coming from the kitchen heading to Hector (the principal)'s office to clean. The camera follows Ivan down and as he walks down the hallway follows Maria who has now stepped into the camera and has a separate life from Ivan, but at the same time intertwined because they live in the same space. Just like the camera man, my eyes follow Maria and I am curious about what she is about to do and I have lost all interest in Ivan. This is how effortless the transitions are and one of the elements that make El Internado unparalleled in its writing and direction.

Bottom Line:

There is more bad guys than good guys. There are birth secrets, lies in everyone's eyes, cheating, friendship, bravery, sacrifice and tremendous love. Love that supports, that holds each other up and love that endures the bad even against the worst odds. And at the end, a bittersweet feeling. Like a war that has finally been won, but that at the end has us all asking: at what cost?