‘Ravalear’ Cast and Crew discuss their new Max series

Barcelona, ​​Spain-in a bustling street in the Raval neighborhood Barcelona, ​​former Halal Slagers, Tattoo-Parlors and generations of old Catalan cafés, a production team quietly runs the camera on a modest building with a modest building mosques, a fictional restaurant in the heart of Max.

The scene really feels incorrect, and that is the point. Made by filmmaker Pol Rodríguez and inspired by the experiences of his own family, the hugely popular neighborhood bar Can Lluis run for more than a century, “Ravalear” is a raw, compelling series that combines the language and tropics of thriller and family drama to combine viewers in a Barcela.

Max’s new series with six episodes, produced by Barcelona’s Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” producer Arcadia Motion Pictures, will premiere in 2026. More than just a high-end European drama. It is a deep personal story about memory, community and the silent brutality of economic displacement. Variety Got access to the set where the executive producer of Arcadia Sandra Tapia proudly showed how this ambitious vision is brought to life and introduced us to the people who work to bring this story to the screen.

“Everything started in 2019,” showed showrunner Rodríguez between Takes, sitting in a corner of the bustling street that doubles as the most important passage of “Ravalear.” “My family had a restaurant, Can Lluís, for decades. A fund took over and we lost it during the pandemic. There was guilt, there was anger and I realized that this story could be adapted as a thriller.”

Indeed, “Ravalear” combines social realism with thriller tropics. It follows a multi-generational family who, when learning that their beloved restaurant is being bought out by a powerful investment fund, decides to fight back. But this is not a simple underdog story. “The characters are morally complex,” said Rodríguez. “The heroes are not always the same, and the villains are not always wrong.”

The story is based on current urban tensions: enveloping rents, speculative real estate and cultural erases. Yet Rodríguez insists that the drama is more than polemics. “It’s about memory versus progress,” he said. “What happens if the identity of a neighborhood is erased for profit?”

Largely filmed on location in the Raval itself, with extra scenes in Montjuïc and Poblenou, “Ravalear” fades the line between fiction and documentary. Streetcasting brought in first actors such as Noor-Ul-Huda and Mohamed Ben Moula, who perform alongside Spanish heavyweights, including Enric Auquer, María Rodríguez Soto, Francesc Olla and Sergi López.

Walking on the set feels like you are entering a real-life street in the Barrio. The simulated can -mosque is not a studio construct, but a functioning kitchen and dining room built in a real commercial space, although only for the duration of filming. Local companies and residents serve as extras, and neighborhood associations were involved from the script phase up to and including production, everything, from Set Dressing to Catering.

“There is rawness in it,” said Auquer, who plays one of the sons of the family. “Seeing the real family of Pol becomes emotional to see us recreating, that is powerful. It gives everything we do an extra weight.”

Rodríguez and co-director Isaki Lacuesta their last collaboration, “Saturn Return”, won three Goyas in 2025- embraced this compelling approach. “It’s chaos, sure,” laughed Rodríguez. “But it’s beautiful chaos. As a restaurant during the service, you have to embrace the unpredictability.”

True to the setting is “Ravalear” multilingual. Scenes of nature shift between Catalan, Spanish, Urdu, Arabic and English. “It reflects the soul of the neighborhood,” said Rodríguez. “You walk through a single street in Raval and hear five languages. We wanted to honor that.”

For many cast members, this polyphony was a challenge and a sensation. “Sometimes I would do a scene in Spanish with someone who didn’t speak at all,” said Auquer. “And yet we made contact. It was all body language and emotion. That is the magic of Cinema.”

Although “Ravalear” is clearly political, the villains are a shady investment firm and heroes are the ones who fight to stay in their houses – although the lines between them often fade, Rodríguez and the Cast are careful to prevent didactics. “This is not a lecture,” said Rodríguez Soto. “It’s about people. And people are complicated.”

Rodríguez Soto plays the wife of the eldest son of the family. “She comes from a higher economic background,” she explained. “She is fascinated by this world, by people who have built their lives together, who are fighting for each other. It is a letter of love for the solidarity of the working class.”

Both Rodríguez and Auquer were attracted by the emotional truth of the script. “This is not just about a building,” said Auquer. “It’s about history. Identity. When a place disappears, part of who you are.”

Although deep locally in theme and language, “Ravalear” is ready for international attention. With Filmax -Mom with global sales and Max, which ensures broad domestic visibility, the series seems to be destined to cross boundaries. But the makers do not fit it for export.

“We dilute nothing,” said Rodríguez. “In fact, I think the more specific we become, the universal the story becomes.”

Auquer agreed. “You can see that with Danish dramas, or Latin -American cinema. If you tell a story truthfully, when you show the details of a certain community, people recognize themselves everywhere.”

The production process is debilitating but exciting. “Thirty actors, five languages, non-actors, children, kitchens, it’s a mountain,” admitted Rodríguez. “But that is the sensation. We have been rehearsing with some cast members for more than two years. That level of dedication shows.”

Much of those efforts was about authenticity, from kitchen food choreography to nocturnal service tension. “It’s like a ballet,” said the director, who grew up in the restaurant world. “One wrong movement, a broken plate and everything spreads. It’s a perfect drama.”

If “Ravalear” will premiere in 2026, this will be more than a prestige series. It is a call from the heart of a city and a people besieged, and a raw, almost autobiographical testimony of one of the best filmmakers in the country. It is a mirror for modern city life, recording what happens when families, communities and culture clash with the cold logic of a hyper-capitalist metropolis.

As Rodríguez caught: “I don’t have any answers. I just want to ask the right questions. And this series is my way of asking, what are we willing to lose in the name of progress?”