‘Millennial Mal’, featuring Spanish actress Lorena Iglesias who also directs, alongside Portuguese actors Afonso Pimentel, Helena Caldeira, and Afonso Laginha, is co-produced by Spain’s Tornasol Media and Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes.
The series tells the story of “a 44-year-old woman who, due to an administrative error, returns to university and decides to assume the identity of a young student in her early twenties,” according to the producers.
“It’s a fun and moving story about personal reinvention that bridges generations and challenges conventions,” reflecting on themes like youth, aging, the place of women in society, and the transformative role of education, they reveal.
This morning, the routine near the Roman Temple of Évora was disrupted as dozens of production members and temporary traffic restrictions took place for filming several scenes with actors Lorena Iglesias and Afonso Laginha.
“I play a kid the protagonist meets in Évora while on an Interrail trip, who thinks he’s Kurt Cobain and sings really well,” but with “disconnection from reality, as he hates technology and society in general,” Afonso Laginha explains during a break in filming.
This is the first of two days of filming in the historic center of Évora, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The film crew will also feature the Praça do Giraldo, Fonte das Portas de Moura, and Sé Cathedral.
Lorena Iglesias, in addition to portraying the protagonist Judith and co-directing with Andrea Jaurrieta, also wrote ‘Millennial Mal,’ which she describes as “a university comedy.”
“I realized that women in their 40s feel that their adolescence was not lived as it should have been, due to patriarchal conditions in the 1990s. So, I decided to make this comedy, which is a second chance for an adult woman who decides to relive her youth at university,” she notes.
Andrea Jaurrieta reveals that the Évora shoot covers the protagonist’s past, in the late 1990s, during an Interrail trip. “We were recommended Évora, told that the city was very beautiful and touristic yet not very famous.”
“We thought it was the perfect place for the protagonist’s flashback,” she emphasizes.
Mariela Besuievsky from Tornasol Media states ‘Millennial Mal’ is set to premiere in 2026, with part of the filming conducted in the Spanish city of Pamplona. The filming in Évora is part of the “final stage” of the series’ production.
The series, consisting of five episodes each lasting 25 minutes, will be broadcast on RTP and available on the streaming platform Filmin, with dates to be announced.
Alongside professional actors, approximately 50 extras, mostly recruited in Évora, participate in the filming.
This marks the seventh Portuguese-Spanish co-production by Ukbar Filmes in the past five years.
“The entire filming team is Portuguese, with actors who filmed in Pamplona, and we will have a soundtrack full of prominent Portuguese names as well as the entire sound finalization,” adds the Portuguese producer.
