Show of the week: Shadows of the Past

Televisa Internacional’s new telenovela Shadows of the Past, marks a re-visitation of international hit The Spring, which Televisa produced in 2001.

The telenovela remake currently broadcasts on Mexico’s Canal de las Estrellas, where it made a standout debut on November 10, scoring a 20.2 rating and a 31.2% share in its 7.15pm slot.

Televisa launched Shadows of the Past internationally at NATPE in a 150×60 minutes format. Its main attraction for international buyers “will definitely be the story that it tells, and its high production values”, according to Claudia Silva, Televisa International’s sales director, South America.

Shadows represents “a classic melodrama” – one of Televisa’s specialties – that combines intense love stories with doses of hate, secrets and betrayals, Silva adds.

Set in the fictitious small town of Santa Lucía, the TV series centers on two young lovers, Cristóbal (Pablo Lyle) and Aldonza (Michelle Renault), as members of two feuding families. The couple confronts the ghosts of their parents’ past, which brings pain and tragedy to their lives.

Mainly shot in Zacatlán de las Manzanas, in the Mexican state of Puebla, the telenovela was adapted by María del Carmen Peña and exec produced by Mapat L. de Zatarain, a regular producer at Televisa whose recent credits include Autumn’s Skill and The Lady from Vendaval. “After the Mexican release, it has been well received by international buyers, and soon will launch in other Latin American countries and the US,” Silva says.

The production of Shadows offers a formula that combines young acting talent working on familiar scripts from an old telenovela, which was an international sales and TV audience success.