Next April 26, The Asunta Case premieres on Netflix, a series based on the case of the murder of 12-year-old Asunta Basterra Porto at the hands of her adoptive parents, Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra. After the success of The Burning Body, the streaming platform launches to recreate the macabre crime that shook Spanish society ten years ago.
A production starring Tristán Ulloa and Candela Peña in the roles of Basterra and Porto, who traveled with the rest of the team to Galicia for filming. They witnessed first-hand how the event is still very much alive among the population; Candela Peña has even revealed how they had to work amidst insults on a daily basis.
“They have insulted me a lot,” the actress confessed on the LaScript podcast a few days ago. Peña, in her role as Rosario Porto, experienced how some people shouted disqualifications at her as “daughter of a bitch.” “Not only because of the character you are playing, but because of an actress who is going to make money from something terrible.”
“They have said some horrible things to us,” the actress continued explaining, confessing that most of the insults were directed at her, for playing the character of Rosario Porto. As an actress, she found herself at a crossroads, because she knew that “the basic thing is not to judge a character”; but she knew what her job was. “Throughout the six episodes, I have stuck to Rosario’s truth.”
The actress has not been the only one to denounce what is happening. A month ago, in the middle of filming, it was Tristán Ulloa who denounced the attitude of some people who dedicated themselves not only to insulting him, but also to sending false information and rumors about the real case.
“We have received comments of all kinds, some with better intentions than others. Many, most of them, pure rumors. And to do a job based on rumors and contribute to the noise, I personally don’t even get out of bed,” he assured, insisting that it was all “a challenge” based not only on “the obvious.”
The fiction series takes the viewer to what was one of the most high-profile cases in the history of crime in Spain. Specifically, on September 21, 2013, when Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra reported the disappearance of their daughter Asunta. Hours later, the body of the 12-year-old girl was found by the police, who after an arduous police investigation ended up linking her parents as the alleged perpetrators of the crime.
